Hogwarts Fayal's Seventh Year a HP bk 3 companion
by Deedlit MagicFayal Wood
Summary: While Harry is caught up in his little world, the rest of the school has a few adventures of their own. Fayal, cousin Oliver Wood, and her friends have an interesting seventh year. Brand new chapter up and it's my favorite! Fireworks rule in wizards world
1. End of Summer

Fayal Wood And The Plot-less Book  
By: Deedlit Magic  
  
Chapter 1 End of Summer  
The morning light drifted through the trees of a forest outside Auchtermunchty to dance on the thatched roof of a large stone house. As with any Scottish family a thick brogue was audible as they awoke. "Oliver Matthew Wood get up!" A woman's voice broke the morning calm of birds chirping merrily.  
  
"Aye Aunt Michalea, I'm up." He yawned as the captain and the best Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team rolled out of bed.   
  
"Fayal, put down that book and go feed the chickens." The woman continued.  
  
"Aye Mum, here Ashelie, hold my place." There was banging and then the front door opened and an average height, shapely, and plump woman with skin that was ivory, delicate, and fair came out the into the dapples of sun. Her hair the hues of a fire, while her sparkling eyes decided to be a soft lavender for the time. Her eyes where as Wizard's Silk, changing with her mood from blues to silver, purples to green. She was dressed a long black skirt and a long sleeved purple top.   
  
Her hair hung down her back in wild curls, hinting her self to be unruly as the wind when she wished. She went to the barn and grabbed a pail of feed before heading to the chicken yard and scattering it for the feathery beasts.  
  
"Oliver, your parents have gone off to the ministry for some reason or the other, so you need to go to town and collect the things we need from the hardware store. That barn roof is leaking again." His Aunt shooed him out the door.  
  
"Cousin, could you get me some parchment? I'm fresh out." Fayal looked up as Oliver buttoned up his shirt as he walked up the path.  
  
"Aye...but only if you take Ashelie to school."  
  
"No problem." She waved as she walked back to the barn. She made sure the milking cow was fed and watered before she milked her and took the frothy hot liquid back to her mother.  
  
The woman who looked remarkably like Mrs. Weasley looked up with a smile. "Oh good. As soon as you get back from taking Ashelie to the school house you and Oliver can go get your supplies from Diagon Alley. Floo powder is on the harth. I'm off to the shop." She gave her daughter a little hug before going out the door.  
  
Ashelie was Fayal's little brother of ten. He was as some joked prettier then Fayal. He had the same eyes and curly hair that was kept back in a ponytail with no bangs. His freckles were darker but aside from that and the distinct male /female differences they could not deny relation.   
  
He was studying the last page Fayal had been reading in Magical Herbs and Fungi (2000 More to Learn). "Related to Willow. Used in teas as pain reliever. Attracts lightening." He said aloud.  
  
"Ok, time to get your things together for class. I'll pack your lunch while you eat breakfast." She tasseled his hair before he ran up the stairs to get his book bag.  
  
She made him some toast and eggs and poured some orange juice into glasses and set the table for three before making a lunch parcel for Ashelie. Before she had put it on the table next to the front door he had bolted back down the steps and was sitting at the table. She sat with him and they prayed over the meal before they ate. Oliver came back before they had finished and sat down to eat also. He plunked down a pack of paper as she looked up.  
  
"Thank you, though it's no longer necessary. Oliver, when I get back we have to go to Diagon Alley. I've got my things together already since I haven't unpacked from my summer work." She smiled, giving him some more bacon. "Ok Ash, ready to go?"  
  
"Aye!" He was to the door before she could stand.  
She dropped her napkin on the table and raced him down to town. There were other wizarding families who had their children in his class and she told him to go home with Mrs. Dippet if Mum didn't come to fetch him. Then she went back to the house. Oliver was still packing. She cleaned the kitchen and finished reading her book before he was ready. Then they took their things and traveled by Floo Powder to Diagon Alley.  
  
  
  
It was a lovely afternoon, dreary and cloudy as they came out of the Leaky Cauldron and parted ways. This was according to very few people mind you. Muggles mostly hated the weather, but it was a wonderful day for shopping out of doors for magic folk. The annual collecting of Hogwarts school supplies had begun.  
  
An average heighted lot gathered hugging each other and greeting one another excitedly in front of the clothing store Fayal being the shortest. A delicately boned, slender, pale skinned beauty with dark mahogany hair and deep blue eyes stood wearing nothing close to the school uniform. She wore a black crushed stretch velvet shirt featuring bell sleeves and a laced bodice as well as a skirt with an embroidered material panel on the right quarter panel in the front and left in the back. Platform shoes made her look more willowy then normal. Her thick dark hair was cropped to her shoulders in several lengths, showing her favor of Japanese life. "Fayal! Oh, Ryn, is your mother better?" Her voice was flat and slightly deep, all though it was full of happiness.  
  
"Celesta, you've put on weight!" Fayal teased her with a loud joyous voice that still made her sound sweet and innocent. She was dressed now in the school uniform except her grey jumper dress had been the uniform nearly one hundred years before.   
  
Ravenclaw coloured stripes matching her silver and blue striped tie decorated the neck, pocket, and sleeve holes as well as the hem that came down past mid-calf. The sleeves of her crisp white shirt hit just at her wrists. "Ryn, Aye, how is your mum?" Her voice was as soft as a feather as she finished though her Scottish accent was still thick.  
  
The girl they spoke to had medium brownish blond hair to her shoulders, flipping up on the end cutely and happy looking blue eyes, kind of crescent moons, twinkling with merriness. She had a solid figure and was a farm girl. "Well, she's ok I guess. She's not dead, though some times I thought of helping her because she is so ugh! And I can't take it some times. It's nice to be back to school, I needed a vacation from her. WOMAN!" The blond highlighted hair was lighter then her skin, which was a nice light toffee color from her long days in the sun of Ireland and New Zealand. "So uh yeah, anyway, how's it been going?" She tried to look cool and calm as she fretted with the front of her sweater. She was dressed in the normal Hogwarts school uniform for girls though the colours where a bit off from being worn and the black robes where to short for her. She was a loyal Hufflepuff through and through.  
  
"Poor Ryn, don't worry, once we get back to our old antics you'll feel better!" Celesta patted her on the head. Her Slytherin style always showed through.  
  
"Bawk meow! Bawk meow!" She clucked like a chicken and meowed like a cat. "So any how...I finally talked them in to letting me have a Griffin. It was so embarrassing to have a parrot. And he was stupid to." Immediately all three girls bobbed their head and began saying "Pickle!" repeatedly as the bird had done for the past seven years. Ryn uncovered a cage that sat near her feet. A small yellow Owl Griffin mix blinked at them. It was the size of a toy poodle. "Everyone meet Bobbleamabingodama, the Owgriff."  
  
"Do what to who?" Fayal cocked her head to the side.  
  
"Bobble-ama-bingo-dama...Fine, Bob for short!" She gave up after they continued to give her strange looks. "Stop looking at me! I didn't name him. I wished his name to be *she grumbled so they couldn't hear*" She whined. "Mom named him, thanks Mom..."  
  
"Merrrooowwww!" A sleek grey tabby cat wound between the girls' legs. She wore a pair of spectacles and had on a golden collar. Someone nearly stepped on her. The cat took a few steps then keeled over. "Zzzzzzz...."  
  
"I see Manic, your cat, is still narcoleptic." Fayal poked the cat with her toe smiling at Celesta.  
  
"Yes..." Celesta picked up the cat and shoved her in the duffel bag she carried. "I see everyone has their books and clothes, so let's drop by the wand shop before we go get a snack so we can sit and talk." Celesta began walking away from Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions where they had met as Fayal had left after getting her robes let down. Ryn was probably wishing she could get some new ones and looking in the window and Celesta had dropped by to mock rule followers. She hated being normal. Fayal just wanted to be eccentric.  
  
"Wait a second you need a wand to?" Ryn looked startled.  
  
"So do I!" Fayal grinned as soon as Celesta nodded. "Ollivander's it is."  
  
They soon reached the dusty little old shop that had been selling them wands since they were eleven. It was thanks to customers like them that the shop had been around since 382 B.C.... "Good after noon. I've been expecting you three...again. Do you realize you've gone through twenty-eight wands in nine years between the three of you? What happened this time?" The ancient man asked them in his hazy voice as he walked towards them through the stacks of wands.  
  
"My Griffin ate it." Ryn looked apologetic.  
  
"And it was such a nice wand too...Dragon Heart Strings, You, 6 1/4 inches." He sighed. "And you, Gargoyle Nails, Worm Wood, 12 inches imported from Germany?"  
  
"Um...It got stepped on bay a Centaur when I was in the field last spring." Fayal explained with a grin.  
  
"Let's just say my Phoenix Ash, Cedar, 9 1/3 inch from Gwam got broken." Celesta said ominously.  
  
"Well, Never mind that, things happen...Especially to you three it seems. Try these." He began handing them wands, telling them about the specifics with them ignoring him. They had heard the tales so often they could probably tell him about half of the wands in the shop. "If only you were like Miss MacGahee. She dropped by this morning just to say hello. She has two wands. Never has broken either of them. The one she got from me was willow with a phoenix feather in it. Her other is a solid crystal with stardust in its core that she got on a trip to China with her grandmother."  
  
Ryn and Celesta took wands and began waving them. It was an awful thing to watch the shop's destruction. The card catalog flew apart, the pillow in the window was set on fire, one stack of wands was scattered, and the front window was blown out before the two had their wands. Ryn took her new Dragon Heart-Strings, Golden Oak, 13 and 1/3 inch wand and waved it at the fire speaking the extinguishing spell and the fire went out. Then "Reparo!" the window fixed itself. "Terribly sorry bout the mess."  
  
Celesta waved her Phoenix Feather, Red Mahogany, 9 3/4-inch wand and placed an Unbreakable charm on the window. Then she muttered at the still smoldering pillow. "Reparo." It was as good as new. "Very nice. Now let's go to the junk shop across the street...Fayal, care to find your wand now or are you waiting for an engraved invitation?"  
  
Fayal had stayed well out of the way of them. "Wingardium Leviosa." She spoke softly and all the wands scattered on the floor floated up to hover about waist high. Then she spoke a binding spell and gathered them into a pile on the desk. "Wandardium Selectose Spacificous." She closed her eyes and held out her hand. Two wands rose from the stack and placed themselves in her hand. She separated them, holding one at a time before picking one. "Papel Rinted Assemde." The cards put themselves away. "Thank you sir once again for your assistance." She tucked her new Unicorn hair, Rosewood, 13 and 7/8-inch wand into her robes. She was getting far to good at that.  
  
They all paid and left him sighing. "Perhaps the Unbreakable charm would be best cast on your wands." The door closed, silencing the little bell that rang in the back of the shop when someone arrives or leaves and the girls had left him for the junk shop.  
  
They selected some books on Muggles, by Muggles, and on topics of interest like Runes. Fayal got four books on potions, Ryn got two on Fantastic Creatures, and Celesta got one on Black Magic. They left the shop and headed on past the second-hand robe shop to Gambol and Japes. Ryn and Fayal shrugged as Celesta darted in side. "Meet you at Florean's in a half hour."   
  
The cuddly force pulled Ryn, "Magical Menagerie...They are all so cute..."and into the shop she went. So Fayal stood alone. She passed Gringotts, Knockturn Alley, the ice cream parlor, the robe shop, Flourish and Bott's book store, stationery shop, magical instruments, Owl Emporium, and Quidditch supplies finally reaching her destination, Slug and Jiggers Apothecary.  
  
She took one last breath of fresh air and plunged into the strange store. She sat down her book bag and pulled a wooden box with an ornate scene of a bubbling cauldron carved into the top from the bag before re-shouldering it. She opened the box and walked around looking at the items on the shelves lining the walls. The box had many compartments and had been used often, proof of which was stains covering the lighter inner wood.   
  
Before long she had selected all of the items called for on her list from Professor Snape's potions class. She placed extra items she decided would be wise to have for projects beyond the classes he planned. She paid and hurried down the street to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Ryn was all ready waiting impatiently and Celesta was walking up the street towards them, wizards swarming around like gnats when Fayal arrived.  
  
Ryn stood leaning over the case of flavors. "Grape Marmalade with Pixy Dust topping. Sparkly..." The shimmering magical sugar was more then she could resist.  
  
"Frost Covered Pansies 'n Cream." Fayal ordered with a smile.  
  
"Pumpkin Marshmallow." Celesta spoke finally after scowling for a while.  
  
After a minute of fumbling to get them their fancied flavors they received their treats. "Grape Marmalade with Pixy Dust toppings, Frost covered Pansies and Cream, and Pumpkin Marshmallow. That will be one Galleon, twelve Sickles, and four Knuts."  
  
Sixty-eight Knuts came from Celesta's pocket. "I've got the change."  
  
"What a help." Ryn commented.  
  
"Here is a Galleon." Fayal scrounged her pockets.  
  
"Eleven Sickles..." The clerk reminded them.  
  
"Here are five." Fayal found a few.  
  
"And I've got six." Ryn tossed the last few on the counter.   
"Hello!" Aurora appeared with a smile, her robes in perfect order. Her ivory skin and rosy face were perfect. The predominantly green wizard silk eyes hinted at her good potential in Divination. Her long curly brunette hair hung down to her waist. They exchanged greetings.  
  
They all flopped down on a bench and ate their ice cream. "I've got to go to the bank. Some body's got a crush I hear." She changed the subject.  
  
"Who?" The other girls asked.  
  
"Fayal, you like Severus, right?" Ryn prodded.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Well, you have a cousin and he's cute, so I'll help you if I can if you hook me up. You will wont you?" She blushed at her ice cream.  
  
"So you only like me for me cousin Oliver? Well, fine. Sure I will set you two up together." She smiled at her friend. "I'm done, I'll go on to Gringotts and grab some money. Me vault is a ways down. Later!" Fayal cleaned her hands off with a simple un-sticky spell and set off leaving Ryn and Celesta talking about Oliver.  
  
She ignored the magical verses that warned thieves away. She wasn't doing anything wrong, why read it yet again?  
  
The other girls finished their ice cream and Celesta went to a shop next to Gringotts that had a tiny creatures exhibit from all over the world. Ryn went to get more money, hurrying past rows of goblins.  
  
Celesta looked at rats, bats, cats, snakes, bugs, lizards, and other creatures. She stopped to examine a particularly sad looking Golden Snidget when her friends returned and distracted her. "Come a long." Ryn called to her. They stood together on the street as she exited the shop. "What else do we need?"  
  
"Hey you guys, let's go down Knockturn Alley!" Celesta begged, trying to look sweet and innocent. "Come on, just for a peek?""Ok, I have wanted to go there for ever." Fayal grinned with a mischievous glint in her eye.  
  
"Oh gee, look over there, owls!" Ryn wandered down the street quickly, rounding the corner and presumably dashed into Eeylops Owl Emporium.  
  
"I'll take that as a no." The red head giggled. "Ok, let's go now." She took a few steps towards it, before feeling Celesta's hand on her arm. "I can't feel me arm, loosen up would you?"  
  
"Uh, sorry." She unclenched her fingers a bit. "Look over there! Valkyrie feathers, Albatross blood, and werewolf fangs...now that's advertising...Oh shit, run!" Celesta turned and fled the scene.  
  
Fayal looked around, wondering why she was left standing alone. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Professor Snape was suddenly looming over her, hissing angrily.  
  
Her heart skipped a beat. "Professor...I was jest curious." She told him the truth with out flinching. In nine years one learns to overcome the urge to turn and run from even him...Well maybe not, but she wasn't his best student for letting him walk on her. "Are you shopping?"  
  
"I am here to pick up some supplies. YOU should leave." He was looking at her in his usual intimidating way. His hair was loose and a piece hung over his eye.  
  
"Might I walk with you? Then I would be safe cause you would be in control." She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him.  
  
"Fayal, you really should not venture into such places. Stay close and don't lag behind." He frowned darkly, but nodded curtly. "Come along." He started down the dark streets.  
  
She followed, moving silently over the cobble stone street She glanced in the windows as she followed him. Giant spiders, shrunken heads, venders with fingernails...the place was strange and creepy. If Snape had not been leading her she would have never made it so far down the alley. Borgin and Burkes caught his attention and he veered off into it. She followed closely. He held the door open for her, then shut it solidly behind her.  
  
Glancing around her eyes drifted over cases of strange mummified objects and a large wardrobe. A magical glass eye followed her around as she looked at a noose. "Stay here. And do not touch anything." Snape went into a back room. She could hear him speaking with someone.  
  
A necklace caught her attention. She leaned over and studied it. A tall skinny man appeared from behind a thick curtain. "Why hello dear."  
  
"Good day." She smiled, then continued looking around.  
  
"It suits you, you know."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"The necklace." He picked up the opal necklace and walked over to her. "Let me look at it on you." She was startled by his spontaneousness and didn't try and stop him. "Just as I thought. Have a look." He motioned to a mirror on the wall. She looked in it and was surprised to see the jewels had the same brilliant purple and teal sparkling to them as her eyes. "They are only done justice on someone like yourself."  
  
"Just WHAT do you THINK you are doing?" Snape growled from the doorway.  
  
The man turned white. "Severus...I didn't know the lady was with you." He grabbed at the necklace.  
  
"Ow! Hey, let go of me! I'll do it me self." Fayal was being partially strangled by the man.  
  
"Oh no! It is stuck sir!" The man sounded frantic.  
  
"And just what does it do?" Snape's face was unreadable which was twice as scary as being able to tell how mad he was.  
  
"Um is matches the eyes of it's wearer...And it...Um...kills the wearer..." He flinched, the cowered as Snape's eyes grew larger, then narrowed at him.  
  
"If she dies, you die...or worse." His sneer made even Fayal take a few steps back.  
  
"It's all right. In protection against the dark arts they taught us bout cursed jewelry." She tapped the stone in the middle with her left index finger. "I must say it was about the only thing I got out of Quirrell. Unicorn's purity, curse dis-spell, Demansuno Tolast Kimbora."  
  
A dark shadowy vapor came from the jewel with a hiss. It dissipated into nothingness as Snape eyed it. "Miss Wood, preforming magic out side of Hogwarts is strictly forbidden." He didn't sound half as angry as he might have other wise.  
  
"Sorry Sir, but it isn't forbidden. I spent a year doing field study and that classifies as Special Causes, Article B; Any student taking study outside of the normal schooling environment may practice magic until the day regular learning is reestablished." She watched him, wondering how mad he was going to get over her retort.  
  
Robes rustled as the professor turned away with a snort. His fierce eyes fell on the cowering shop owner. "It is lucky for you that it did not kill her. I believe you owe her an apology." His words were harsh and aggressive. She was reminded rather of a Bulldog sneering at a poodle. She stifled a giggle.  
  
"Y-y-yessir. I-I am terribly sorry about this Ma'am." He squeaked as Snape tossed loose Galleons at him.  
  
"Come along. I have other business to attend to." Snape opened the door and went out into the street.  
  
"Please feel free to pick something from the shop as our gift to you." The man waved his hands around.  
  
"The necklace then thank you. Here, I'll take the hand too." She pointed at the mummified hand in the case, then held out her money.  
  
"Do you know what The Hand of Glory does?" He picked up the small withered hand off of the cushion that held it and placed it in a small bag.  
  
"Duh. Place ah candle in its hand and the light is seen only by its holder, blah, blah. Hurry up." She snatched the bag from him and shoved it in her knapsack. Then she hurried after Snape.  
  
"I told you not to dottle." He looked sourly at her from across the street. "I have to get some candles for Trelawney. Stop wasting my time." He pulled the door to the nearest shop open and waved her inside.  
  
"Sorry Professor!" She entered the store that read simply 'Poisonous Candles' and looked around as he closed the door. Rows of candles lined the wall and covered tables. Jar, bucket, tapered, stick, rolled, dipped, scented, toxic, sleep inducing, lover enchanting, and trance enhancing; every candle for any need was visible. "Blimey..."  
  
"Exactly. You may buy some candles if you wish, just keep away from the back wall." He began picking up boxes of candles. Votive Seers' was written on the boxes.  
  
She chose a sleep inducer, trance enhancing, lover enchanting, super illumination, butter cookie, and pumpkin spice. They each had their own box and went into a velvet bag. She reached in her bag for money, but Snape put some coins down on the table. "Why are..?  
  
"I have a request to make of you." He took her to the door by the arm. "The professors all must put away their new supplies and make sure everything is in order for the student arrival in nine days." They walked down the nearly empty street to another small building that read 'Fire and Ice, the magical elements store'. "Your friends and yourself could pick up some extra credits if you are willing to help."  
  
"So we would go today?" Examining the pale features of the tall dark haired man, she nearly tripped over the doorway.  
  
"In about an hour." He nodded to her. Then he looked to an ox like man with dark brown hair behind the counter. "Good morning Windersell. I need a case of wind for Madam Hooch and some instant fire for the hall lamps."  
  
He paid for two wooden boxes, before hoisting them on his shoulder and leading the way back to Diagon Alley. As they came to it he finally spoke again. "Fayal, do you need anything else?"  
  
"I have yet to get my quills, ink, and parchment." Her brilliant now blue eyes fell on Ryn and Celesta sat on a bench hiding behind an addition of 'The Daily Profit' as she nodded to the right, indicating it was on the way out.  
  
"I'll fetch them while you discuss it with your friends." He spoke curtly before setting off in the direction of the stationery shop.  
  
"But..."  
  
"I know, rainbow inks." He sighed. "O'Mearz, Robbins." He simply spoke their names as he passed them, then stifled a smile as the paper they held was ripped in two.  
  
As soon as he had glided out of sight the paper was tossed aside. "Oh my gosh, you actually went shopping with THE one and only sexy yet sinister Severus SNAPE?" Celesta looked at the bag she held.  
  
"Aye. He wants us to go to school today with him and help the teachers with setting up for the new school year. We can get extra credits." Fayal spoke excitedly.  
  
"Sure, I need all the extra credit I can get. I'll owl my parents when we arrive." Ryn nodded, glancing in the direction of Snape's departure. "Is he sitting with us?"  
  
"I don't know...But you said Oliver for Snape, deal with it." His cousin used the poor boy as bait, if only he knew. "Don't you think it will be so worth it?" The Scottish girl continued to encourage Ryn, topping off the words with his picture from her pocket. He was looking bewildered and trying to hide behind a broom.  
  
"Mmmm..." The picture was snatched away as she nodded. "We'll go!"  
  
"Hey, nobody let me say anything!" Celesta cried. "Oh bloody broomsticks! Fine, I'll go." She noticed neither was paying her any attention. "I'm going to seduce both of them and take them away from you." She said it as evilly as possible.  
  
"Whatever." Ryn rolled her eyes. "Wait, where did Professor Snape go?" The nervous girl glanced around as if he might jump out and dock her points for asking such a thing.  
  
"He went to get me ink, quill, and parchment for school so I could ask if you would come with me to Hogwarts now." The not so matter of fact tone she used made her friends laugh.  
  
"How sweet, he's buying her presents all ready." The skinny European teased her. "Ok, I'm ready to go. Are you two?"  
  
"Yes." Nodded the light brown haired girl.  
  
"Aye." Fayal smiled happily. "Let's go!" She set off following the path Snape had taken humming to her self. On the way she spotted Oliver and bid him farewell, telling him to let her mum and da know.  
  
  
  
It was less then an hour later that the girls had found themselves in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express with their things all ready stashed away. Snape had chosen a place to settle on the opposite end of the train. The place was crammed with things the school needed like food, new sheets, magic supplies, spell-o tape, and other things. They had been served some treats and before they knew it they had arrived at their destination.  
  
"I did not steel it, she conveniently forgot it in my pocket." Celesta was defending herself as Snape opened the door to their compartment. "That is to say..."  
  
"Miss Robbins, are you starting of the year on the wrong foot?"  
  
"Why which foot would that be Sir?" She used her utmost innocent face.  
  
"I suppose either foot would suffice for you Robbins. I'm not going to have a problem with you this year Miss O'Mearz, am I?" His scowl turned deeper as his attention focused on his second most delightful victim in all of Hogwarts. Neville was his first, but she had been first for years before the boy came to school.  
  
"N-no-o s-sir!" The Irish girl looked about ready to cry.  
  
"Professor, could you take us to the castle now? It looks as if it might rain any second." The curly haired girl stood up and grabbed her bags. She smiled pleasantly at Snape.  
  
"Yes, I suppose that the things should get to the castle before I deal with you." He turned in a great swirl of robes and led them out of the train. They all looked in awe as the castle loomed over them as they came nearer. Finally they reached the entrance hall, feeling quite small in the shadow of the immense building. Snape had dismissed them until the next morning and they had gone to put their things in their room on the staffing hall.  
  
"Is something wrong?" Celesta looked up from placing her things in their places at Ryn spazzing out. "Should I take your circling the bed like a vulture dancing about something dead as a yes?"  
  
"My God, you're starting to sound like him! You are you aren't you...Of coarse you're you, but you aren't Snape to are you?" She looked at her friend in complete panic.  
  
"Chill." Celesta sighed. "I'm hungry!" She turned to the golden platter sitting on the table for four on one side of the room. "Oi plate, I'm hungry! Feed me!" The plate just sat there. Nothing happened... "Oi are you awake?!" She rapped on the plate with her knuckles. It clanged loudly but nothing happened. "Faaayaaallll! The stupid plate isn't enchanted anymore!"  
  
"You have to...Never mind..." Her voice drifted out of the bathroom, sounding strange in the cavernous space. She came out, hair tied back in a bun. She picked up her wand from her desk and tapped the plate gently. "Engorgio Lepata Umfeed." POOF! The platter was heaped with food.  
  
"Yippy! FooD! I don't know why it likes you better." She began stuffing food in her mouth.  
  
Ryn followed suit and they sat together eating while Fayal flitted around putting things up. Finally she sat down with them and they chattered about their vacations. Celesta was just finishing her tale about a particularly hard conquest of a Musician in Japan. "So he wrote his next song about me."  
  
"Beasts of Blood?" Fayal guessed teasingly.  
  
"You are so mean."  
  
"I'm jest truthful." She grinned, ducking as a piece of bread was lobbed at her head. "And you call your self ah chaser?"  
  
"Only when I have to. I'm a seeker!"  
  
"Seek quiet!" Ryn thumped the table between them, making their goblets and silverware rattle on the table. "Geese, I'm only asking for a few minutes of peace. And thanks for asking, yes it was the same old boring farm girl summer. Now, tell us about the Dark Forest." She propped her chin on her palms, elbows resting on the table as she looked at Fayal.  
  
"I stayed with a pack of Unicorns and stargazed with Centaurs. I met a pack of talking spiders the size of Hagrid and ah wild car. Me partner Aurora and I collected one hundred sixty seven different plant samples for research with Sprout and some are also for Snape's potion classes. I spoke with him at the end of last year and he said he would help me make more difficult potions the class would not cover after dinner on Tuesdays..." She blinked, realizing she had gone off topic. "Anyway, I ran into a Werewolf and vampire, but they started fighting over who got to kill me and I got away. That's pretty much it. Lots of bugs, trees, and the likes. Oh oh, I've got ah surprise for you! I got some unicorn blood from some cuts I mended and I put it in some nail polish."  
  
"Bloody nail polish?" Celesta gave her a bewildered look.  
  
"If we paint it on our index finger we can use it as a power channeler in place of our wands. I've done it for nearly two months. It doesn't work for dark magic, but I've yet to have ah problem with it."  
  
"Cool!" Ryn grinned.  
  
"I also have some unicorn hair I'm going to stitch into our house emblems any place that is gold, white, or silver. This will protect us against dark magic and boost our power." She smiled back, holding up a spool of silvery thin yarn and a spool of sparkly white yarn.  
  
"Squee!" Celesta waved her hands in the air. The girls left the table, food forgotten and began working on their new robes. After a while they had their robes finished and went to bed with sore fingers. Ok so they really just lay around and talked about school and things until Ryn was asleep. Then Celesta got an idea. "Hey Fayal, we are the only kids in the castle, right?"  
  
"Aye...So what are you getting at?" Fayal sat up and looked at her mischievous friend.  
  
"Dungeons!" She bolted out of bed and pulled on her clean off white pants and a white shirt. She ran out of the room in her socked feet. Her lantern swung as she went.  
  
"Have fun..." Fayal sighed. "Well, I'm not tired sew maybe Professor Snape has something I can do now." She slipped out of bed and dressed, pulling on her robes before heading out into the hall, her own lantern in her hand. She walked down the silent halls and stairs. After about ten minutes of descending steps and walking halls she made it to the classroom he used for potions. She knocked lightly on the door.  
  
There was a soft clatter, and then she heard his voice. "Come in."  
  
She pushed the door open, it creaked as it swung open to reveal the dimly lit room with its twenty abused desks with stools and Bunsen burners. Snape sat at his desk, unpacking his supplies. He stood, looking surprised to see her. "Is there something I can do for you?"  
  
"Actually I came to see if I could start. May I help you?" She stood in the doorway, tracking one side with her fingers absently.  
  
He nodded, rounding his desk. "Yes, of coarse. I was unable to rest my self. You may unpack the student cabinet supplies and make a list of them, stocking them in the proper places. Make notes of any I missed so Hagrid can get them." He picked up some parchment and a bottle of ink with a quill sticking out of the top as he spoke, then walked across the room to her. "Here is some paper."  
  
She extinguished her light and set it aside before she took the items he offered her with a smile. "Do they need to be alphabetized?" She glanced at the pile of stuff before turning back to meet his dark eyes.  
  
Professor Snape thought for a moment. "I do not have a design on how the cabinet should be set up. I will leave it up to you on how you decide to arrange things. Just so long as they are labeled. I have no desire to see rat spleen added to a potion instead of frog stomach ever again. It took hours to put that boy's nose back properly last year."  
  
"Oh Aye, I remember hearing the fuss when I came to do me weekly check in with Aurora." Fayal nodded. "Well, good luck with your mess!" She walked to the cabinets and sat down on the floor before them. She began unpacking jars and boxes. She scattered the items in front of her and began marking them down, labeling them, and putting them in the cabinet in alphabetical order.  
  
She efficiently whittled away at the pile until it was gone. "Frogs eyes...I can't find them anywhere." She dug through the empty crates again.  
  
"Frogs eyes? I bought them. I've seen them some place. Let me see..." He began rummaging around in the piles of things on his desk. He knocked something off with his elbow and the sound of braking glass made him grit his teeth. The bizarre sound of things rolling on the floor told them both the bad news. "I found the eyes it seems."  
  
"I'll pick them up."  
  
"Thank you Fayal." He sounded tired. He began cleaning up the glass.  
  
She got a jar from the shelves and went over to the puddle next to Snape's desk. She began carefully scraping them onto a piece of paper then funnelling the eyes into the jar. She finished cleaning them off the floor and stuck the jar in the hole left for it before closing the doors on her finished work.  
  
"It is late. I will walk you back to your room now." Snape had moved quietly to stand behind her and she looked at him slightly startled. "Come along." He took up a lantern and lit it with his wand. She did the same with her own and they walked back together through the silent halls. They didn't speak until they had reached the door to her room. "I will see you tomorrow at breakfast. Good night." Snape spoke in his softer, seldom-used, voice.  
  
"Sweet dreams Professor." She opened the door with her free hand.  
  
"Oh, hey Fay." Celesta said from the table.  
  
"He...Celesta! Look at the mess you've made."  
  
"I'm a Smurf!" She cackled evilly. Her entire body was covered in a deep blue dirt.  
  
Snape caught a glimpse of her. "I do not have the patience for that. I'll leave you now." He turned and continued down the halls to his room near Slytherin.   
  
"You're an idiot." Fayal watched her teacher disappear before coming into the room and closing the door. "Take a shower."  
  
"I'm not ready yet. Want some?" She held out a piece of slightly blue bread left from dinner. Her fingerprints covered the table and she hadn't even washed her hands to eat.  
  
"That is nasty!" Fayal shrank back from the offering as though it was poisoned. Knowing her it may have been. "Well, you aren't getting in bed until that dirt is off you."  
  
Celesta stuffed the slice of bread into her mouth before climbing to her feet and rummaged around in a nearby box until she retrieved a small jar about the size of a jelly container. Then she began to try and knock the dirt into it. The result was a blue cloud filling the area and a light dusting landed in and around the jar. After about five minutes of this she finally shrugged. "Good enough."  
  
Fayal picked up the jar from the table and summoned the dirt from the blue girl into it. After a moment the air had cleared and the shirt and pants no longer had patches nearly an inch thick with the odd substance on them. The jar was nearly full as she was thanked and her friend hit the shower with lots of energy.  
  
She yawned as she changed into her dressing gown and crawled into bed. Snuggling under her thick blankets she fell asleep almost immediately. Her slumber was only disturbed slightly, as the bathroom door opened, and light fell through her bed curtains to shine on her briefly. Then she slipped back into darkness. 


	2. Time Flies

Chapter 2 Time Flies  
  
She woke to an obnoxious growling. Ryn's eyes opened. She was face to face with an annoyed feathery one. "Wake up and feed me."  
  
"Muh?" She blinked stupidly. Food? She sat up and stuck her feet over the side of the bed, stuffing them into slippers. Then she walked over to the supplies shelf and grabbed some Griffy-chow baby Griffin food. It clattered into a bowl and the bowl banged on the floor loudly as Ryn stumbled around groggily. Angry moaning from a near by bed made her glance over.  
  
Blue. Celesta was a beautiful sky blue...This wasn't right. "Oh Bloody Broomsticks! I can't believe I'm still asleep."  
  
Celesta picked her head up with a groan and blinked at her. "Would you shut up? Some people are still trying to sleep." A pillow was lobbed in her direction, missing by several feet.  
  
"We are awake now. Might as well get up." Fayal got to her feet and stretched.   
  
"But I'm asleep."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Fayal got her clothes off of the chair and put them on.  
  
"She's blue!" Ryn was nearing her hysterical tone.  
  
"Didn't I tell you to take ah shower?!" Celesta was yelled at immediately.  
  
"I stained. It won't come off."  
  
"Cool, I want to be blue to!"  
  
"Ok, let's go!" Celesta bounded out of bed and started for some clean clothes.  
  
"Wear the ones already dirty." Fayal objected. Her wishes were met and they dashed out the door, breakfast forgotten. She got up with a sigh and washed the table off, made the beds, picked the wet towels off of the floor, and opened the window. She sat down and ordered herself up some scones and tea. A knock at the door startled her. She sat down her teacup with a rattle and stood. As she crossed the room to the door she pulled her robes on over her pink dressing gown. She turned the knob and pulled open the door and found to her surprise Madam Hooch standing at the door.  
  
"Good morning. I've come to fetch my daughter." She said this briskly, hands folded in front of her.  
  
"Good luck, she isn't here."  
  
"Where is she?" The suspicious look she gave Fayal annoyed her slightly.  
  
"Don't know." She shrugged. "If you'll excuse me, me tea is getting cold." The door was firmly placed between them. She didn't need torture this early in the morning. They didn't get along well. Madam Hooch had decided Celesta's faults had been as a result of Fayal's influence. She was older and therefore it was all her fault.  
  
She got dressed and finished eating, giving her scraps to Bob. "Well, I'm going to get moving. I've opened the window for you. Have a good time exploring." Fayal hung out a colourful towel over the windowsill. "This is so you can find your way back. Later!" She went off to Snape's office.  
  
She tapped softly on the door. "Open." It swung away from her to reveal he was putting away papers. "Good morning Fayal."  
  
  
  
Lunchtime was a little less then usual. Fayal had been persuaded to come eat in the great hall because the sun was not shining. Her fair skin burned so easily that the enchanted ceiling would prove more sun then necessary for it to happen. She hardly ever showed herself in the great hall, preferring to eat in her room or in a teacher's office.  
  
In seven years of varying attendance neither Ryn nor Celesta had learned the simple spell to bring food to their plates. This brought them into the room looking grumpy. Dumbledore grinned at them. "Ah, blue is such a nice colour on you both! I do hope though that you will be normally pigmented for the arrival of the new students. Have a seat." He patted the chair next to him. Everyone was spread out down the table looking like they could use naps. "Masque, wriggle, plump, thicket. Lovely words, don't you think?"  
  
"Forest, summer, ping-pong, lattice." Celesta said in reply as she sat down and helped herself to some Potato soup.   
  
"Ah yes, those are nice too. Lattice...Sum-mer...yes..." Dumbledore nodded to her.  
  
"Are you sure you should be spreading yourself out in so many directions Miss Wood?" Professor McGonagall continued to speak with Fayal as they ate. "I mean, with your NEWTS and Salem Witches' Village of Learning preparing, do you really think it wise?"  
  
"Ay got every OWL with top marks every year though I was taking Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle studies, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Divination. I am thinking of dropping Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Muggle Studies though I would like me NEWTS to include these subjects also...Would that be ok?"  
  
"You git! I can't believe you still want NEWTS on subjects you aren't going to be taking." Celesta looked at her in disgust.  
  
"I'd rather know if I can do it or not." She frowned. "And I like taking tests."  
  
"Then by all means, take mine too!" Ryn offered generously from Celesta's side.  
  
"Thanks, but I'll jest deal with what I have." She picked up an ice mouse from the plate and dispelled it before nibbling at the sweet. She hated for her food to protest to being eaten.  
  
"I don't see what it would hurt for you to take my NEWT. If your scores in the class are unsuitable I will simply leave them out of your reports." Professor Vector smiled at her. The Arithmancy teacher was most supportive in her insane study schedule over the last several years. "You did most of this year's work over summer holidays anyway, didn't you?"  
  
The question could have come from no other person. She was always popping up with piles of papers to be reviewed. That is how she unwound at the end of a busy day, or reciting potions. "Actually I finished the book." She looked sheepish. "The last chapter was amazing."  
  
"Did you really understand the relationships?"  
  
"Oh, Aye! I was surprised at how it fits in."  
  
"Stop that! I can't eat with all this smart talking." Ryn whined into her pumpkin juice.  
  
"Oh Hagrid, I must say, I think your text book is so sweet. I have learned loads from it. Not the usual Unicorns and fairies." She rolled the conversation along. "I believe you'll make an excellent teacher."  
  
Hagrid beamed at her. She smiled back before noticing her toe was tapping something under the table as she wiggled it. She glanced down to see Snape's shoes. "Sorry! I didn't mean to!" She sat up properly.  
  
He continued to look at her with a thoughtful air to him, then he returned to watching Ryn and Celesta being rowdy.   
  
  
  
The time passed quickly, the girls helping teachers until the afternoon when they would go play flying-games on the Quidditch fields. In the evening they explored while Fayal read in the library or helped teachers. She was still getting ribbed for playing footsie with Snape at the table, even as they made their way in to mix with their tables as the Hogwarts students arrived. They where required to go to the opening feast.  
  
They watched as the first years filed down the center of the room, looking scared to death. McGonagall lead them to stand before the head table and the sorting hat. Its mouth opened and song sprang forth from it.  
  
I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat,  
You can try me on with ease.  
For I will tell you where to go,  
Which house it ought to be.  
  
Better Ravenclaw then Slytherin?  
Of Gryffindor be thine?  
Hufflepuff is a friendly lot,  
Whose house will be made divine?  
  
Now Ravenclaw is brainy,  
They think things through and through.  
Study, stead, right of mind;  
Is Ravenclaw for you?  
  
Then again there's Slytherin,  
Ambition is the key!  
Not matter what it takes,  
They make sure they succeed.  
  
Gryffindor is for the brave;  
Heroics shining through!  
If you rush in when things begin,  
Then this house is for you.  
  
Then there is one you'll find,  
Friend even when you're in a bind,  
Loyal, just, and always kind,  
Keep Hufflepuff in mind.  
  
Step right up and stick me on,  
So the Sorting Hat will see;  
Which house is meant for you,  
The place you ought to be.  
  
Everyone cheered as it finished singing. "Ambrosia, Abigail!" And so the sorting began as the forty new students found their home.  
  
Fayal was remembering her sorting. She was a very shy child, but was excited about going off to school. Her eyes stretched wide as she took in the castle as the enchanted boats took them across the lake. Then they entered the school and her overly pale face had gone whiter as McGonagall spoke to them. A test?!? She had stayed still, frozen to the spot in shock as they had been called to enter the great hall.  
  
She had read Hogwarts; A History several times but it had never spoken of this ritual sorting. A boy came back and seized her by the hand and dragged her along. He had large ears that stuck out oddly, but she greatly appreciated his hand. She had hidden behind him as the teachers eyed them from the great table. The crowd dwindled until a handful stood around her. "Shunpike, Stanley." The boy left her with a smile, marching off.   
  
"Hufflepuff!"  
  
She was suddenly standing alone. Everyone was looking at her. She examined the floor. "Wenderstil, Pernadina." McGonagall looked at her. She turned red and shook her head. "Where is she?" She looked around. "Hagrid, did you loose one?"  
  
"No ma'am, couldn't have, counted them as they got in the boats and when I handed them off to you." The giant man told her. "Had all forty."  
  
A tall man with dark stringy hair stood and exited a door to the left. "I'll look for her." And so the room sat and looked at the nervous country girl that had never been away from home in her life. A century later the teacher came back with a girl her age that was sobbing her eyes out. "Peeves had her on the ceiling." He said simply as he released her and went back to his seat, wiping his hand on a handkerchief as though she was dirty. Hushed whispering broke out among the students.  
  
"Wenderstil, Pernadina." The deputy head mistress tried again. The girl staggered up and climbed onto the stool.  
  
Silence was so thick Fayal could taste it. "Hufflepuff!"  
  
The students all clapped and an older girl gave her a hanky and a hug.  
  
"Wood, Fayal."  
  
She walked quietly up the steps and sat on the stool. It wobbled slightly, being on a crack in the floor between stones. The hat fitted over her head. It spoke quietly to her, knowing her turmoil over which house would be suitable for her "Hummm...So unsure. Ambition! Ah yes, but fairness...Shy and quiet...but I see that will not last long. I could put you in Hufflepuff, but no, you will not enjoy it for long. Perfectionist that you are...Slytherin could be your house but think. You believe in equality, fairness, and sharing...now that is not the Slytherin way. Gryffindor is a definite no. You are cautions and fearful. Ah yes Ravenclaw is so right. Thinker, logic, study, passionate for learning... Don't you agree?"  
  
"Aye." She whispered.  
  
"Ravenclaw!!!" The hat announced as something hit her on the head. She shrieked and fell off the stool clutching the now bulky hat. She pulled it off to find a very large and heavy book in it. She blinked at it.  
  
"You show great promise, it is a gift from Rowena Ravenclaw." Professor Dumbledore smiled at her. She wasn't sure how he got to be standing over her but she accepted the hand up he offered her. "Once you have finished your years at Hogwarts, please give it to a teacher so I may put it up for the next time someone is chosen." His eyes twinkled merrily. "Run along to your house table now."  
  
  
  
She looked up as food appeared before her. "Did I miss anything Winnie?" She asked the nearest student. She had been far from this time.  
  
"The usual, except for the dementors on Ministry of Magic business -because of Serious Black I believe- and Professor Lupin is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher-I think he's kind of cute, don't you-, and sweet old Hagrid is our Care of Magical Creatures teacher." Winnie, her friend told her.  
  
"Mmm." She shrugged. "I guess he's cute. Dementors?"  
  
"On the way here they got on the train, didn't you notice?"  
  
"I wasn't on the train."  
  
"Oh really? Well, anyway it was really terrible! They wore these big black robes and they smelled like death and their flesh was rotting and they sucked the happiness right out of you." She shuddered in her re-account of it.  
  
"I'm glad you weren't hurt!" She smiled.   
"I wasn't but that Potter boy, Harry I think is his name? Well he went and passed out on everyone when the dementor confronted him."  
Fayal looked at the famous Harry Potter, who was looking rater pale, then glanced up at his least favorite teacher, only to see Snape looking loathingly at Lupin. "Hum, they must have been classmates."  
  
"What?" Winnie looked at her.  
  
"Uh, Professors Snape and Lupin. Nobody gives that look to a stranger. Don't you think?"  
  
"Snape gives me that look every time I mix up pixie dust and ground unicorn horn. I doubt there is anything between them. Pass the bread."   
  
"Sure." Fayal picked up the basket and offered it around. "So everything was ok, even though the dementors got on the train?"  
  
"Yeah, but it was really creepy." Winnie brushed a strand of honey blond hair behind her ear. "Have you read 'An Expert's Guide To Transfiguration': chapter ten yet?"  
  
"But of course! They could have gone a little more in depth before now. Have you decided if you will try it?"  
  
"Oh yes, I'm certain that I will be an Animagus." Winnie looked quite set in her belief of her abilities.  
  
"I hope you will be. I'm not trying. Just one more thing to complicate matters. I've never been great at transfiguration anyway. The only OWL I flopped completely." Fayal shrugged. "Which reminds me, I've got ah few papers to finish for McGonagall tomorrow. If you'll excuse me, I should get to the common room."  
  
"Tomorrow? But it's the first day! Don't tell me you've put off our homework until tonight!?" Winnie looked at her incredulously as she followed her out of the great hall.  
  
"Nonono! It's a study retreat entrance paper of some kind to complete. I'm not sure exactly what they want out of me, but I've got stacks of papers to write and I suck at transfiguration." She explained herself quickly as they went along. "The teachers are helping me by getting everything ready to send off before Christmas when it's due. You know, avoiding the rush is best."  
  
"Well, I'll proof read for you. Let's go!" They made their way to the Ravenclaw common room. I can't believe you want to go to that village. They are twice as strict as Hogwarts."  
  
"Book Worm Wit!" She told the painting before stepping through the wall. "And the best Witches' school in the world aside from the African one and the Bermuda Triangle. I may take some classes with them as well. Just Herbology and Potions, but I do hope I am able." They flopped down on a cushy couch. "Both Professors Snape and Sprout are sending letters and examples of my work to the schools to see if they will make allowances for me."  
  
"If Snape is writing a letter of recommendation, then you know it's in the bag. Now let's see those papers."  
  
  
  
Starting off the first day of school was the ideal way for everyone to begin their years except for McGonagall and Celesta. Professor McGonagall nearly made everyone cry at 9:05 the first morning. "Oh no, Professor McGonagall, PLEASE?!" Ryn wailed as she was handed a quiz. She chewed her lip, knowing her life was over.  
  
"That's enough out of you. I know you can do this." Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Hsu, get the anti-cheating quills out of the cabinet." She continued to hand out the papers.  
  
A small oriental girl from Hufflepuff got up and went over to the storage area. A moment later a scream pierced the air, echoing down the halls. The horror in it made several students break out in goose pimples and seize their wands. Mass confusion began.  
  
"For heaven sake Laura Hsu, what is it?!" McGonagall looked furious as she turned around. Little green worms were inching their way across the stone floor.  
  
"Inch worms are so cute!" Celesta got one to climb on her finger and began playing with it. Yes, this was the way she liked life.  
  
"Robbins, turn them back this instant!"  
  
"Me? Turn what back? What did I do?" She looked at the flaring nostrils and burning eyes and looked meek.  
  
"The worms, return them to quills this instant!" Any sane person would have done it right then, and then died after soiling themselves, but Celesta was never accused of being sane.  
  
"How? I didn't do this! I was all the way over here and my wand is in my bag! I haven't been near that cabinet in three days and those little things would have crawled out the cracks before now." She resorted to grumbling. She wasn't someone that people believed easily. "I'm not the only one that plays practical jokes around here." Her lip was poked out.  
  
"Fine, ten points to the house that is first to bring back one of our quills." McGonagall went to her desk and began reading. Ryn actually won the ten points for Hufflepuff and then told everyone the spell. Before they could start the test class was over.  
  
Everyone thanked Celesta as they left the class. "Thank you! I'll be here all year. I do parties. Oh and pretty boys..." Her eyes drifted down a prime piece of beefcake she passed in the hall. He grinned back at her. Yes, there were a few good things about Gryffindor...Very good.  
  
  
  
Maybe Celesta had a little too much sugar before the next class. Ok, so a five-pound bag liquefied and fed directly into her bloodstream would have been less of an indulgence. Potions was a quiet class with little to no moving aside from bending over the tables and cauldrons. Sugar and quiet don't mix well.  
  
She drummed her fingers as Ryn's eyes watered with barely contained tears. "I'm going to fail. I can't cook..." The liquid was supposed to be pink but it was shocking red. "What did I du?!"  
  
"Reduce the heat. Add the candlum." Fayal was working on another project in front of them she had started in the last class. After clearing it with Flitwick through the fire and floo powder method she had picked something that threatened to take until lunch to complete. Despite that she was muttering helpfully when they needed it. "Stop banging on the table!" She looked annoyed at Celesta.  
  
She stood up...from her seat on the table. A few boys got an eye full as she loomed over them from her new perch. "I'm bigger then you!" She chimed childishly. "Hi boys, look, leopard print!" Money was exchanged under the tables and mutters of tiger and checks.  
  
Snape snapped his chalk in two at her yelling. He turned and nearly got his eyebrows tied together in the middle of his face scowling. "Get down!"  
  
"Oh no it's Snapezilla, dun dun, dun dun, wahhhh!" She ducked as Snape sent a bolt of lightening in her direction. "What are you trying to do, kill me?!"  
  
"Why no Miss Robbins, I wouldn't want the netherworlds plagued with you before they absolutely have to. I was just trying to get you off of the desk. Please take your seat."  
  
"Ok Daddy." Celesta did as she was told, sitting more properly in her seat then ever before. Her hands folded neatly in her lap as she smiled up sweetly at Snape.  
  
He blanched. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" His voice seemed choked and strained as he over-pronounced his words.  
  
"What ever do you mean? I didn't call you anything Daddy." Showing how truly remarkable she was, she managed to keep a strait face as his mouth twitched at the corner and his eyebrows twisted unnaturally.  
  
"I am not your father. I detest that word and I will not allow you to call me that." He didn't hiss his words, but rather grumbled them.  
  
Laura was hiding behind her cauldron least she be noticed. Jen Veagan was wincing. This was very bad.  
  
Fayal had stopped writing to watch the show. She had never noticed it before but their teeth where similar as well as the hair that always looked kind of overly shiny and hung in clumps that flipped on the ends. Then there were their nasty streaks. Both had large ones. This probably is what gave her pal the idea for the new teacher torture.  
  
"But don't you like me Daddy?" Some how she had tears in her eyes. The ham!  
  
His hand covered his face. It was his "You have given me a head ache" stance. "Class, finish your invisible ink potion, then write your name in it on a piece of paper and leave it on my desk. Anyone's who isn't on my desk gets a zero for the day. You may leave when you are done." He turned and stormed out the door.  
  
"Well, that was a new twist." Ryn blinked. "So all we have to do is put paper on his desk?"  
  
"Budge-up your brain. He's got ah visible potion. Make the potion and go." The Ravenclaw girl put some green liquid in a vile. It cooled and turned teal. "Perfect..." She completed her work and began cleaning up.  
  
"I don't get this...He didn't finish writing the ingredients!" Someone wailed behind her.  
  
"Nice going Robbins!" A dried toad was hurled across the room. Robbie- one of the Ravenclaws- had managed to stop flirting with his partner long enough to notice it wasn't Nathan's- a Slytherin- fault that they had a problem with getting their work done.  
  
"Everyone's a critic." She frowned at them.  
  
Tim chuckled at the situation, before shrugging to Ryn. He was one of the least noticed Hufflepuffs.  
  
"Ok people, I think we should start with discussing which plants have invisibility potential." Fayal stood up and turned around to the class. "There are three ways to identify them. Who knows one?"  
  
Everyone began working together to live through the class except Celesta who had lost her quill and was hunting for it under her desk.  
  
They made it through the class and were writing their names on paper when Fayal took her leave, racing down the hallway and off to Flitwick's class. Breathless and flushed she made it to his classroom as her cousin Oliver preformed a spell. "Ah Fayal, how good of you to join us." Flitwick teased her. "You've missed your turn, but you may go now."   
  
She stood up and preformed the charm gracefully. "Wonderful, exemplary spell casting Mister and Miss Wood."  
  
She looked over to see her Ravenclaw friend Aurora smiling at her.  
  
  
  
Fayal filled the plate in the room and left it for the girls. She was eating in the Great Hall since it was dreary and Tobes was going to give her notes on Charms. She met him in the hall and he led her to the table. They sat together and took out their supplies. She glanced over the papers he had before turning back to the first page. "I've never thought of doing it that way."  
  
"Professor discovered it by accident a number of years ago. Most people don't trust that way though."  
  
Fayal scrawled a few sentences on the parchment she brought before looking up as a boy flopped down in front of him. He looked up. Thomas Bumble...He got up hurriedly with his hand clamped over his pocket and went to the other end of the table. She went beat red in remembrance.  
  
  
  
It was a little over a month into lessons her first year and she sat across from Thomas. They were eating when something cold, with scrabbly feet, and rough skin went up her skirt. She shrieked and tried to jump out of her seat. Instead with the movement of her hands she cleared the end quarter of the table with an unbridled power, while she went flying across the room and crashed into the wall next to Slytherin table. Her eyes were wide with shock as the room looked at her startled. Then her eyes had rolled up in her head and she had fallen the twelve feet to the floor.  
  
She had been told by Winnie that Snape had hurried over to her and checked her pulse, magicked a stretcher and took her to the nurse before anyone else reacted. It could have been that he was the closest, but she liked to believe it was her first day, telling him that she would be the best in potions no matter what he thought of her after his condescending speech. Dumbledore magicked the food off of the Ravenclaw students and new food appeared, not that most of them were up for eating it.   
  
Thomas had been afraid of her ever since and she was prejudice against toads. For his had caused the scene. It had also made her a feared child. Even though everyone knew her family, there were rumors of her being you-know-who's daughter. She began Divination almost immediately because her third eye was developing quickly and she needed control.  
  
  
  
Fayal stuck her things in her room and went skipping off to Herbology with a big rimmed witch's hat on to shield her from the sun. "Good morning class, to day we are going to be working on dancing fox glove. They are tricky to prune properly since they are so jumpy but I believe you are ready to try. So get in pairs and we will begin." Logan O'Neal asked her to be his partner. She accepted and they went to work. Before long the Fox Gloves had begun to lob dirt at them. Celesta was the first to become nothing but a mound of dirt, her glasses were all that remained of her. Her partner had to dig her out.  
  
She felt a pang of guilt for making Aurora her partner. She was a major in Herbology and having such an uninterested partner was a crime. She did think it was amusing though, her teeth showing as she grinned. Her light brunet hair was swept back in a ponytail as she set to finding her lost partner.   
  
Her extremely curvy figure caught the attention of several boys as she worked and Sprout realizing nothing was going to be done by the male students with her bending over like that lent a hand. Finally a very muddy Celesta was retrieved, though Aurora had dirt smudges on her face. Her green eyes dawned a golden hue.   
  
"Now, let's actually do it this time." She tugged playfully on a piece of Celesta's hair.  
  
"No Problem MacGahee, I'm done playing I'm the buried treasure." Then she smacked Nathan for saying something dirty. Robbie was encouraged to say something more naughty. He defended himself by hiding behind his Fox Glove.  
  
  
  
Mean while in Defence against the Dark Arts Lupin had set a couple of Catermongs on the class after giving them instruction. He neglected to tell them that Catermongs were cat-sized coach-roaches that spit acid.   
  
It was an amazing sight as most of the female students and a few males all screams and started running in circles. Ryn started crying and tried to get away as they all decided to chase her. Oliver Wood dived in front of her and cast an ice spell. She clutched the back of his robes, burying her face in his shoulders as he held them off before Lupin finally petrified them and put them away. Oliver held Ryn until she calmed down. "It's ok, they are gone."  
  
Lupin sighed. "I suppose we will have to try that again next week."  
  
"I don't want to see those things ever again!" A Girl told him emphatically.  
  
"Oh dear, this isn't something we can just skip. If you can't handle Catermongs, how will you ever hold a match to a Kibberwakie?" He smiled kindly at them. "For the rest of this week, we will practice spells to use on one."  
  
  
  
Oliver walked with Ryn to History of Magic and they passed notes while the teacher tried to bore them to death. Hey, he bored himself into the next life, they knew he could do it to them. He wrote of Quidditch strategies with her commenting on them. After that they began discussing the history of Quidditch.  
  
  
  
Celesta and Fayal scrubbed up and went on to Defence against the Dark Arts. Lupin gave a lengthy lecture on Catermongs then let one out. The thing was so frozen that it would take hours to thaw. He let the rest out and soon they all stood motionless. "Well, I am impressed. Or perhaps I should be disappointed in my other class?" He leaned against the wall.  
  
Fayal was looking rather green. "May we be dismissed?" She asked weakly.  
  
"Yes. Run along. Have a good day."  
  
Celesta, Fayal, and the other students lumped out the door and out side. "Let's have a game of Quidditch!" Celesta called her broom before anyone could agree or disagree.  
  
"I'm not sure..."  
  
"Come on, Snapekins made you that potion in case, use it and let's have some fun." Celesta grinned. "I'll go ask mom for the balls."  
  
Fayal sighed as everyone else began teaming up. Fun and flying had not been used together in the same sentence since her catastrophe in the great hall her first year. She had never felt safe on a broom again, though her wonderful potions Professor made her a remedy for temporary courage boosting. She hardly needed to take it any more, but in nine years she had never gone back to enjoying flying, much to the disappointment of her family. Wood and Finnigan, the two largest Quidditch families in Europe and she was afraid of flying.  
  
Madam Hooch had been less understanding of her fear then Snape, making her so hysterical she was ill all down Hooch's robes. This was a relationship doomed from the start and she -who had been competing in Junior Quidditch Leagues since she had been six- failed flying lessons in the first hour.  
  
Despite failing she was on the Girls' Quick Quidditch team as beater and coach. Basically anyone could be on it, but your year had to have seven players at the least of your sex. There were five backups and two from Slytherin and one from Ravenclaw had a chance to play since Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses were still in classes. The boys had just as many backups playing. No first, second, or third year teams existed at the moment.  
  
There was a rumor that McGonagall was making rules so Quick-teams couldn't be formed anymore. It was not fair if it was true since only seven students per house could play in real games, really, twenty-eight students out of two hundred eighty? That is only one in ten and not very entertaining for anyone else who wants to play.  
  
As Celesta and a Slytherin boy carried the chest onto the field she took out a little bottle and swallowed the thick blue liquid inside. It was horrid and nearly took the curl out of her hair as she shuddered. The boys pulled on orange robes as the girls got their brooms and cleared up who was what. Aurora was playing, which made Fayal happy.  
  
A boy volunteered to be announcer and he climbed up to Lee Jordan's seat. "Ladies and Gentlemen, today's Quick-match is the first of the year and no wonder because it's the first day of classes! On the Orange team are the Seventh year boys. On the black team are their opposing girls. Captain of Girls is in class, so Coach Wood is taking her place. Let's see a good game everyone! Right so Parker is releasing the balls. Here is the pitch and the Quaffle goes to Black team! Great move by MacGahee! It takes talent to move like that on a Comet 260!"  
  
She swirled around and passed the ball. "The ball moves down the field. First to Douglas, then Perry, back to MacGahee oh fake! Perry gets it to Douglas who shoots. The Quaffle made it by Orange team temp keeper Leagues, despite a great weaving technique! Ten points Black team!"  
  
The cheer was lousy since only four spectated. Three where girls. "Oh! With out waiting a second Orange captures the ball! Chrispin is zooming down the field. Ooh, Bludger sends him veering off course. Nice shot by F. Wood! MacGahee has intercepted the Quaffle! Now they are moving back up the field! Oh, good Porskoff Ploy! MacGahee faked Chrispin and Bumble into flying up and then dropped the Quaffle to Douglas. Brilliant! " Then came a thud and a curse as the announcer fell off his seat.  
  
"Ouch! That's going to leave a mark! A wild Bludger hit Bumble as he went for the Quaffle! Well that's one Orange Chaser out of the game! And bloody amazing the Black team is today, scoring once more. The score is twenty to zero and that elusive Snitch seems to be hiding today. Robbins from Black and Smiles of Orange are seeking but they aren't having much luck. Just fifteen minutes before the Hufflepuff team is scheduled to have the field and the game will end. Will this be a to be continued or can they rap it up in the unlikely span of a quarter hour?"  
  
"By the way Orange has the Quaffle and are approaching the goal post. Watch out! Close one Bidao. Black is very mean with those Bludgers..nice backhand Miss Caulkons. Oh it looks like Smiles has spotted the Snitch! He's diving! Robbins is after him. I don't see anything! Is it a very cruel Wronski Defensive Feint?"  
  
"They are moving so quickly! Is someone going to pull up? The ground is nearing! They are neck and neck! There is the Snitch! Just a little farther! And Robbins gets it, oh and the crowd gets a nice view of her undies as she flips off her broom! Wow, go Black team! I'm sad to say I'm male after a game like that. One seventy, no wait, one eighty to zero. MacGahee scored during the Snitch dive! Terribly sorry to have missed it! Well good bye for now!" He finally finished, winning himself a smile from the ladies as he exited the booth. Brushing back his hair he grinned. "So, do you want me?"  
  
"We all do. It's hard to control ourselves you sexy man you." Winnie Caulkons teased him.  
  
Classes let out and the seven Hufflepuffs appeared in a neat little row. "You were playing without me!" Ryn looked at Celesta in surprise. "And I'm the captain and everything!"  
  
"You get to play now, so be happy." Celesta handed her the Snitch. The Bludgers got shoved back in their box before the previously playing teams dispersed.   
  
In the end Ryn forgave them, then set off in her uniform to impress Oliver Wood with a little fancy flying before he was chased off for spying on their team.  
  
  
  
Fayal went to her room and checked on her familiar. The small white ferret bounced out of it's hiding place under her bed and came to her at her whistle. "How are you doing sweetie?" She picked her up and kissed her on the nose. "Nwyfiant, what have you been in to?" She was filthy.  
  
"Must have found a mouse hole Aye?" She crawled under the bed and found a very large hole. She looked in and found a passage. "I'll have to investigate later. Well, let's seal that thing up for now." She made a magic wall patch before taking her dirty familiar in and giving her a bath.  
  
"That will teach you. No going out on your own." She set the hopping mad ferret down and watched her spring up off the floor and do flips and rolls disgruntledly.   
  
She met her friend and fellow Ravenclaw study girl MacGahee for dinner in the Ravenclaw common room. She was sitting before the fire, her womanly frame curled up in a chair. Her light brunet hair was parted smartly down the middle and flowed in waves to graze the chair just barely. Her fair complexion was lit with the firelight, accenting its rosy glow and gave her eyes an olive cast. She looked up and smiled as Fayal entered. "Hello!" She didn't have the deep accent Fayal did, but they both lived in the same region. In fact she was from the Muggle Village just a mile or so from Fayal's family home in the forest.  
  
"'Ello, I hope you haven't been waiting long." She sat down and elves brought them food.  
  
As soon as the last class of the day was over Fayal and Aurora scampered down to Hogsmeade and into the candy store. The owner of Honey Duke's looked up and smiled at them as they came in with a flush to their faces after their run. "Arrived this morning by a fleet of owls." He informed them as he reached under the counter.  
  
A moment later he plopped a twenty-pound bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans on the counter. It made a nice thump as it landed. "I do enjoy your magazine ladies." He nodded at them.  
  
They squealed and pounced on the bag. "Thank you!" They chimed before the two of them set off, lugging the bag back to Hogwarts. Once in the castle Aurora grinned at Winnie. "Round up people."  
  
Soon the Ravenclaw common room was being treated like a club. Winnie charged three Sickles admittance. Even Flitwick came to play "Guess that Bertie Bott."  
  
The old flavors that the girls didn't care for got used for the game and anyone could play. Then they tried the other flavors, getting 99% accuracy. Everyone thought it was interesting when Aurora tried a vomit flavored one and got excited because it was a different flavor vomit then before. "I think it was chicken noodle vomit."  
  
"That is disgusting." Fayal frowned. "Oh my gosh, it's a soul flavor. And this one is happiness...Dementors!" She sprang to her feet and the two of them went skipping off.  
  
"Mister Dementor, I've got a present for you!" Aurora held out her hand. The jellybeans were taken in utter confusion. Who give dementors presents but these freaks anyway? The dementor twitched and started moving away. "Awe, I think he liked it! Bye for now!" They skipped off. 


	3. Seeing The Future

Chapter 3 Seeing The Future  
  
The three girls trooped up the hall towards divination. They emerged on the landing under the trap door with the brass plate that read Sibyl Trelawney, Divination Teacher. "Five, four, three, two, one..." They all counted together then watched as the silvery ladder descended to them.  
  
They climbed up one after another. They entered the small room and took a table at the front of the room. Each of them had an old easy chair and with the thickly perfumed warm room they had to fight to stay awake. Not that sleeping through her class was frowned upon. On the contrary, last year they had classes at night while they slept. Slumber parties with Trelawney were interesting. She'd wake you up and question you on your dream then you'd have to translate it.  
  
Today she was in a rather bad mood. You could tell because she killed off three students instead of her usual one. Ryn was to die from a hex placed by a mysterious figure... Celesta was to learn a truth that would be the death of her fun...Quillan was going to die from an ingrown toenail... Then they had to use wax on water to tell each other's fortunes. In the dim red light from the many covered lamps they sat looking into bowls of water with wax splatters on the surface.  
  
Ryn found the class boring and completely not in her ability was forced by her mother -who insisted that their blood was strong in the art of Divining- to take the class year after year. She looked into the bowl and remarked that it looked like flowers. Trelawney swooped down upon them and looked over her shoulder. "My dear, you are right, and do you know what they mean?" Her dramatic posture gave Ryn a good idea.  
  
She played it safe. "But it can't! Not Fayal!" She put her hand over her friend's looking stricken. If nothing else, she could go to Broadway after school. The act set off her teacher predictably.  
  
"Poor dears! Yes, I know it is upsetting but as you can plainly see she will receive many proposals of an unnatural nature. I am not sure how you will be able to get through the trials ahead, and they are quite near...Before summer I believe."  
  
Now her telling this to anyone else would have given it less then a fifty-fifty chance, but anything aimed at her small group was more serious. Nearly everything excluding death was to come true. "Is there anything I can do?" Fayal asked, doubting there was.  
  
"No my dear, these things are best left alone. Perhaps I can see more if you do another casting...Perhaps with lead this time." She guided Fayal through another process. When she finished, Trelawney looked in then gave a piercing scream, before moving to grab the bowl.  
  
She was to slow for the four girls surrounding the table had jumped up to look into the cauldron. A spider wed with two evil eyes looked back at them. They all sat back down quietly and looked at their teacher.  
  
"Fayal, the Dark Lord...He who must not be named...is entangled with your life...Do you know anything about this?"  
  
"No..." Fayal pondered the thought.  
  
"You-Know-Who back?!" The den around them was picking up as Sibyl looked down at her student.   
  
"Could it mean Sirius Black instead?" Aurora chewed her lip deep in thought.  
  
"Those eyes!" It was more then a mer statement. "I've seen them before during crystal gazing...Mister Black never had eyes close to those, in fact..." What ever she would have said was cut short by the bell. "No home work, I for-see too much from McGonagall for most of you. Leave now." Her frail form moved back to her chair in the corner looking faint.  
  
They left quickly. "What did you do to piss her off so bad?" Celesta asked.  
  
"Let's get together after classes and have a reading of our own in your room." Aurora suggested. "Let's see if her mood was altering our outcomes. I mean, Celesta's looked like a key, and I really have no idea as to what it means."  
  
"Ok, I will see everyone later, I've got Arithmancy and Runes to get to. We can meet up for lunch. I've cleared it for a picnic with in the Forbidden Forrest. Since the Pegasi are near by, I thought it would be fun." Fayal glanced at her watch. "Later!" She scampered off after Aurora appeared from in front of her Magically and handed her a golden object.  
  
Everyone knew about the time turner and that the two girls had been sharing it for the prior four years of classes. In fact they even knew their schedules so that they could help them out if people got suspicious. Since Aurora and her boyfriend Kazul only used the time turner for one and a half-hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get to their extra classes it was easy to cover for them. By the end of the year they would use less then twenty-three days during the entire five years they had been in attendance.  
  
Fayal was on the same schedule as Kazul this year and would only use five days taking a class, but she had over three months of time turning over the last five years. Ninety-nine days sounded ridiculous to Celesta for studying, but she pointed out that people could do much worse. Homework management was the key to not using years going back in time. She had kept strict schedules for herself that sometimes kept her from fun, but she was still in the top marks for every single class but Transfiguration, which she totally sucked at.   
  
McGonagall had given her extra classes and summer work, but she still was no better at turning a chair into a ladder, much less her desk into a dog. She knew everything there was to know from books. Oh yes, she could memorize, but her application left something to be desired. Her teacher was unhappy, but tried to work around her inability with patience. Not everyone could be perfect at everything she reminded herself constantly. She was probably a fifth grade in transfiguration after much hard and diligent work over the past nine years.  
  
  
  
She made her way to lunch, a basket hanging from her arm as she matched stride with Kazul. He was her height, with a boyishly slender figure, and chestnut hair that flowed down his back to below his shoulder blades in a loose ponytail. He was strongly built, muscular and light. If he had any interest in Quidditch he would be a Seeker, but he preferred to watch and cheer on the girls.  
  
He glanced at her, his gray eyes clearly curious. "Just where are we going?" He adjusted his glasses then swept a strand of stray hair behind his ear.  
  
"Out side. We are having a picnic with the girls."  
  
"I'm so out numbered." He remarked.  
  
"You know you love it." Aurora wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him, appearing from thin air.  
  
"My cousin Oliver is coming also. You won't be the only boy." She smiled as they reached the front doors. They all stood at the entrance waiting. Oliver opened the doors and ushered the girls out, side.   
  
They all trooped across the lawn and into the forest, talking about classes. It was a short trip to the clearing in the forest where, just as Fayal had said, many Pegasi grazed. They settled down quietly and watched as they ate their meal. One adventurous Colt came over and stole an apple, then its mother chased it around trying to take it away.  
  
They all laughed merrily. Aurora finished her meal and took to petting her forest friends. After a while she was sitting on one's back and soaring through the air. It was a great day until they met in the girls' room to do more readings.  
  
Not that the readings they got the second time worked any better then their first ones. Celesta was the key to time or something. Fayal was two sided, both good and evil or maybe life and death. Aurora kept getting a circle and Ryn well hers exploded into a bunch of little drops. It was all quite strange.  
  
  
  
Much to their displeasure Trelawney remembered to give them homework next class. Family trees. Detailed family trees. It would take Fayal ages. Good thing they had until the end of the first week of November to complete it.  
  
It was the beginning of October as Fayal sat with a small stack of papers compiled of her family. Many more people were related to her then she realized. Her family didn't really speak of the Grangers, but Hermione was her relative, not that looking at them you could deny it. Several people had though she was a younger sister. Brains, frizzy hair, and ambition...It was easy to understand where people got their ideas, but that didn't mean she had to like it at all.  
  
At the time it had been insulting so she had avoided the girl like the plague. It was simple to do since she was only a third year now. She could handle being called Weasley because of her red hair. Her mother was a Weasley after all. McGonagall was Oliver's Great Aunt by blood, and hers by marriage, she supposed. And Finnigan was related, though what he was to her would take some debate.  
  
"First trip to Hogsmeade is October 31st, Halloween!" Celesta sang out as she popped into the room. Celesta pouted when Fayal didn't remark. "Oh those tree things."  
"I hate this. Shouldn't you do yours?"  
  
"Nicholas Robbins and Rolanda Hooch. Done!"  
  
"If you want to fail. You're supposed to ask your parents about their lineage."  
  
"Hehehe...See you later!"  
  
It was just too perky and with her that was never a good sign. "What are you up to Robbins?" Fayal asked Celesta suspiciously as she bounced out the door.  
  
"Snape torture!"  
  
  
  
Celesta entered the room quietly and walked up to Snape's desk, where he was putting red marks on papers, looking board. "Hi DADDY!" She hopped up on the edge of his desk.  
  
"!" He glowered at the intrusion, the name, or perhaps everything connected with the girl. "What is it?" He sounded irritable.  
  
"I need to know something..."She squirreled around trying to look as cute as possible. "Tell me about Grandma and Grandpa!"  
  
He splattered ink on his white sleeve cuff in surprise. "That is it Robbins! I have had it with you. I know you are a troubled student, but I can not tolerate this insolence any longer." He tossed a very mashed quill down on the table and stood up angrily. Ink blotches covered his hands like blood as he stormed off, muttering darkly.  
  
  
  
Ryn was sitting on the floor happily filing papers for Madam Hooch as she graded students on their abilities. Ryn liked doing it, because some times after it she would be allowed to use any broom in the closet. She was also learning to fix them and keep them up.  
  
Madam Hooch was sitting at her desk looking over a new obstacle coarse for her best non-Quidditch playing students. Neither had spoken in a while, and both jumped a foot when Snape burst into the room. He slammed the door and walked briskly up to Hooch's desk, slamming his hands down on it to look her in the face.  
  
"Your daughter is completely out of control!"  
  
"Take a good look at yourself Severus. Who's out of control?"  
  
"I have put up with her for seven years. I have never come to you asking for anything, but now I am. Your child has started calling me-of all the damn things she could- Daddy, and not just to mock me, it's in front of classes and alone. I'm starting to think she believes this rubbish." He was gesturing madly to get his point across.  
  
"Severus, perhaps she needs a father figure. The teenage years are difficult for everyone."  
  
"Don't Severus me. It is not my fault she has no father...And I refuse to have this dumped on me."  
  
"Shut up and sit down. We need to have a talk I suppose that should have happened long before now...Ryn, thank you, that will be all for today." She turned and smiled at the terrified girl who was cowering on the floor next to her desk.  
  
"O'Mearz." He spat, looking infuriated.  
  
"Wiggy! Ombako wa dickly waga bingu!" She climbed to her feet and hurried to explain herself.  
  
"Gibberish hum?" He looked bemused. "Fih jaba garo wakiawicky."  
  
"Umpada brigu!" She whimpered.  
  
"See that you do." He nodded. "Leave."  
  
She ran out. Five minutes later she was sitting on the small bench at the foot of her bed relaying the Snape visit. "So I said "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I'm going now." And he said, "See that you don't go spreading roomers," which by the way means I'm not to tell you this I think...and I promised to keep it to myself. I lied."  
  
"It's ok." Fayal patted her on the head.  
  
  
  
Snape was much the slave driver during the next two weeks. He avoided speaking to Celesta more then normal and gave detentions and took off points like never before.  
  
No one dared question him, nor whisper to one another. It was too dangerous. But finally they made it through the last class and Hogsmeade was a welcomed get away.   
  
They went to the Shrieking Shack and talked about it. Silent as it was for so long, it was still their favorite spot in the town. Who knew why the Shrieking shack shrieked or chose to be silent for a long time? It was probably in fear of Celesta they supposed.  
  
They got Butterbeer and Pepper Imps. Then they went shopping for party supplies. It was going to be Fayal's twenty-first birthday in two weeks so they figured this was their chance.  
  
She left loaded down with things, back past the dementor free path made by teachers earlier.  
  
  
  
They ate in the great hall that night. Giant lit jack-o-lanterns and bats filled the air and they enjoyed themselves immensely. Finally they bid the others good night and left, feeling stuffed to the brim. It was a bit before most had considered moving: still laughing, joking, and eating sweets in celebration of their favorite holiday.  
  
They decided a bath sounded good, so the three went to their room, grabbed pajamas and into the bathroom they went.  
  
Laughing, Celesta splashed at Ryn. "I think you two are getting along rather well, don't you?"  
  
"I...He uh...It's nothing serious." She blushed and sank a little lower in the hot soapy water. The three of them still had plenty of room for a guest each in the large tub. They referred to it as the kiddie pool. Showers stood along the wall to the left, but the marble stalls stood empty. They all took their time relaxing in the hot frothy bath before bed.  
  
Fayal looked over her water warded book "Stars, moons, planets, and you; The effect of the heavenly bodies on your life." "Well, that's nice. I'm glad you finally have gotten his attention. He was grilling me about you earlier, so you know..." A loud boom in the adjoining room startled them into a hush. "I'll check on that. It's probably your broom again." She remarked to Celesta as she placed her book on the side of the tub and began to push herself up out of the water.  
  
The door burst open and Snape's form filled the doorway. He had a rather wild look on his face that gave him an insane air. What ever had agitated him had done so beyond reason or thought which would have stopped him from barging into the girls' bathroom.  
  
Ryn gave a little shriek that ended in a whimper as she sank under the water until just her nose and eyes protruded from the bubbles. She looked about in tears.  
  
Celesta looked up and greeted him, being up to nearly her shoulders, and no need for modesty, not that she would have ever tried to hide herself. "Hi Daddy!"  
  
Little surprise these two reactions got no notice, since Fayal was dead in front of the door, half crouched in the water, as suds ran down her bare chest. They gaped at each other openly for a moment before she came to her senses. Going red she frowned, lowering herself into the water. "Professor, at least turn around."  
  
He had gone incoherent. "Sea urchin...pant sing stashed buy back...Lucy?" His whispery voice was muffled.  
  
A bar of soap hit him full in the chest, probably hard enough to leave a bruise. "GET-OUT-SEVERUS!" Fayal was now glowering angrily. Her eyebrow twitched amusingly.  
  
With a mortified look he fled the room. "Ill whiteout hair."  
  
"What did he say?" Celesta asked them once the door was safely slammed.  
  
"Searching, painting slashed by Black... You seen him?" Ryn told her. "And he said 'I'll wait out here'."  
  
"You speak mumble very well." Fayal got up and grabbed a towel and dried off quickly before putting on her black lace nighty. Had she known he was going to turn up, she would have chosen a full-length pajama dress instead. Her black silk robes got jerked on over it.  
  
She glanced around to find her room mates had finished there mad scramble and where dressed in presentable fashion, if not a bit more sexily then they would have liked. They exited the bathroom to find Snape standing with his eyes fixed on the, oh so interesting stone floor. He mumbled again, his face still coloured. "Waxing the Quaffle..."  
  
"Black's en the castle." Ryn echoed.  
  
"Oh shyst!" Celesta frowned sinking onto her bed. "I was hoping she had misunderstood you...Well, thanks for checking on us Daddy."  
  
He went more sallow then normal. "Nothing peculiar has happened today, has it?"  
  
"Well, as a matter of fact, I dropped some bread and it landed butter side up earlier...ahahahaa, never mind." She cringed at the look he gave her.  
  
"Professor Snape, I'm sorry, but we have neither seen nor heard anything out of the ordinary today. We actually where looking for a trouble-less day and found it." Fayal smiled as she pulled her robes tighter around her waist, least a bit of skin show. She couldn't be dressed less appropriately for male company. "Would you like some help in looking for him?"  
  
"NO! No...That isn't necessary. Please lock your doors and stay inside. Reinforce the wards. They were weak." He sounded very worried as he let himself into the halls.  
  
"Wouldn't want any uninvited men traipsing threw our bedroom while we sleep, would we..." Ryn glowered as she grumbled quietly.  
  
"I'm still surprised you did that so readily. Not being into wand magic." Fayal looked at the door as she started to close it.  
  
"You of all people should know that I am well versed in all magics." Snape cast his eyes down the halls. "Do not go wandering around. Keep yourselves out of trouble."  
  
"Of coarse." Fayal nodded.  
  
"By the way, I think she deserves fifty points for your viewing." Celesta appeared over Fayal's shoulder.  
  
"For wha?...ROBBINS!!!" Fayal shrieked.  
  
"Do be reasonable." Snape tried not to look bothered.  
  
"Fine ten each for Hufflepuff and Slytherin for us not telling on you and thirty for her for not killing you."  
  
"Hn." He turned and walked away.  
  
"We got extra points." She said slyly.  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"He was fighting a smile." Fayal was jabbed in the ribs before Celesta went racing away, shrieking with laughter. The door was sealed and the pillow fight began!  
  
"How dare you imply the professor is ah pervert!" Fayal bashed her with a feather pillow. "That was wrong!"  
  
"Oh come on, he was blushing! And he couldn't speak! Oh yeah and 'You of all people should know that I am well versed in all magics.' All magics? Even the ones we are not taught? Like the bedroom hexes?" Celesta teased.  
  
"That's enough! Now, stop teasing like that. Someone could get in trouble." Fayal frowned.  
  
Ryn looked up at her tone. "Uh ok, let's all pet the doggie and stop fighting, ok?"  
  
Fayal looked down at the large black dog curled up on Ryn's bed. He had his head propped on her knee and she was scratching his thick fur happily. "Where did you get him?"  
  
"He was wandering down on the grounds. Isn't he pretty!" She patted his side.  
  
"Aye..." She smiled and patted the dog after letting him sniff her hand. He didn't seem to care much.  
  
"Izsoprecious!!!" Celesta squeaked as she huggled the startled dog. "Yezyouare!!!"  
  
"He looks hungry." Fayal decided suddenly, going over to the plate and speaking to it.  
  
"You think everything looks hungry." Ryn teased.  
  
She paid her no mind and offered a turkey sandwich to the dog. Ryn and Celesta were abandoned and quick as lightening she was fixed with FEED ME eyes. She placed a plate of turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie on the floor along with a bowl of iced pumpkin juice.  
  
"No body can resist Wood hospitality." Her slender friend smiled. "Don't you agree Ryn?"  
  
"What? Wood? Where?" She looked around. "I'm tired."  
  
"Well, Sirius Black is not going to be found tonight. He isn't waiting in an empty class room for Snape to come find him." Fayal nodded. "Let's go to bed."  
  
And so they curled up and went to sleep, the big doggie stretched out across Ryn's bed. Ryn and Celesta both slept with their arms around him. Fayal went to her own bed and enjoyed the solitude.  
  
  
  
The next few days were completely in chaos and no lessons but potions had much learning going on in them. They were all fixated on how Sirius Black got into the castle, past the dementors, and up to the tower with out anyone seeing him. "Apparating and shrubs, good grief. And did you hear the other stupid roomers? Maybe he just is an Animagus and walked in as that big black dog." Celesta teased Ryn.  
  
Ryn shrugged. "I kind of liked the idea of a flowering shrub. Nothing is flowering right now, so we would see him coming."  
  
"Maybe he is very like Celesta and can get any place in the castle with out anyone seeing. You've got a bunch of secret passages besides the one to Hogsmeade, right?"  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She grinned. "I think there is more to this Black guy then meets the eye. Why Gryffindor? And if he is supposed to be a Death Eater, then why doesn't Snape have a handle on it? He used to be one, right?"  
  
"Well, he did freak out, but that could mean he knows what Black is capable of, or he is truly a nut case and can't be predicted. I think it is kind of assuming to think they have met. They were a large group that took up many places world wide." Fayal fiddled with her wand as Flitwick glanced at them. He had assigned groups before giving in to the want for talking. "We don't know everyone in the school and Voldemort's spread is farther reaching then that, and with numbers like that..."   
  
"Ok everyone, go do something else until your next class, I'm tired of dealing with you." Flitwick sighed.  
  
"Let's all do that little charm for him before we go." Ryn smiled at her friends and they nodded. The three of them cast a spell and watched their writing desks do a little jig.  
  
"Excellent! Five points for Hufflepuff! Splendid work." He favored Ryn as much as Snape disfavored her.  
  
  
  
Celesta skipped out of school on Wednesday to go do some field study...This probably meant she was meeting a boy. Ryn was meeting Oliver for some one on one Quidditch practice...What ever you say. *note, strange evil laughter*   
Anyway so Fayal was bored. She left the Ravenclaw common room when she learned everyone had work to do or was with their significant other.  
  
In her wandering she found herself in front of the painting that led to the kitchen. She tickled it and stepped inside. "Hello everyone!" She smiled as the elves all appeared to be of assistance. "I am in the mood to do some cooking, would anyone care to help me?"  
  
Several heads bobbed. "Ok then, I need some flour, sugar, butter, eggs..." She gave them her list, watching them all scamper off to do a little helping. She got some bowls, pie plates, the ice cream pail, and ice. Soon two elves were churning the handle of the ice cream pail and the pies were in the oven while elves did dishes.  
  
She sat on a stool and sang a little song while they all did their work. She nibbled on a chicken sandwich and drank some herbal tea as she waited.  
  
The painting opened and Severus Snape came striding into the kitchen, giving a command. "Get me the...Fayal?"  
  
"Ah Professor, what are you doing up so late?"  
  
"I'm a professor and it's my right. What are you doing up?"  
  
"Baking an apple pie. Would you like some?" Her smile was genuine.  
  
"I don't like sweet things."  
  
"You like me don't you?" She teased.  
  
"You my dear are tart." He leaned on the table.  
  
"Then you'll like my pie." She countered.  
  
"It's ready miss!" A house elf acted as the timer for her pie. She hopped up, with out giving him another glance and went over to the oven. She put on mitts and took out the steaming desert.  
  
She placed it down on a coaster and checked on the ice cream while her teacher watched her in silence. "Miss Wood, you do realize I will have to penalize you for being out of your room after hours, don't you?"  
  
"Well, since you are so set on it, I guess I will just have to enjoy my time while it lasts." She took out some forks and a pie cutter. Plopping a large piece of piping hot apples and flaky crust on a plate she dabbed some ice cream on the top. She handed it to an elf. "Please take this to Dumbledore."  
  
"As the miss wishes." He scampered off.  
  
She had two more in her hands in a moment and thrust one onto Snape. He looked at it wordlessly then huffed. "Do you ever listen to me?"  
  
"I'm sorry were you saying something?" She grinned evilly. "I do listen, you are just so set in your ways. Just because you had apple pie ten years ago that you didn't like doesn't mean there isn't an apple pie you would like."  
  
"You miss understand me, I don't like apple pie." He took a bite, made an interesting face, and put the fork down. "There, I tried it."  
  
"And?" She cocked her head to the side.  
  
"It was apple pie." He grumbled.  
  
"Helpful." She frowned. "Oh be that way. Speaking of 'that way', did you read the last Daily Prophet on Phosphate Illisiden?"  
  
"Yes, it was an embarrassment. The Illisidens of Sulfate are closer to the derionsulated components of potions based teleportation." He shook his head pityingly.  
  
"I agree, that has been the idea of Meiji Cooperation for years now." She took a large bite of ice cream covered pie.  
  
He shrugged. "The idea of drinking something to move you to another area is a bit beyond hypothetical into fantasy land though you could have argued it about floo powder not to long ago."   
  
She tucked her hair behind her ear, and looked up at him. "An Illisiden will have to be present in whatever concoction they use. right?"  
  
"But if it is a Phosphate Illisiden that achieves it I'll..."  
  
"Eat my pie?"  
  
He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, then down at the now empty plate. "It was still apple pie." He sat it down on the table.  
  
"I believe it is just Wanka that is trying to throw Meiji off of the trail. Maybe Meiji is getting to close to it."  
  
"That is possible."  
  
"I wonder if it will be cleaner then floo powder..."  
  
"Get me the baking powder. Tomorrow I have a feeling I will need it." He told the nearest elf suddenly. "Place it on my desk. I am taking Miss Wood off to her room."  
  
"I know the way Sir." Fayal reminded him. "You don't need to trouble yourself."  
  
"No trouble. I should see who else is out and about." He stood and waited for her. "Come along."  
  
She followed him. They walked off.  
  
When they got to her room, she opened the door and turned around to him. "Well, good night Professor Snape."  
  
"Where is Celesta?"  
  
"Probably Japan by now. Bye!" She shut the door before he could continue grilling her about the other girl.  
  
"You blew off Snapie poo? Oh man." Ryn cackled.  
  
  
  
Celesta was in fact settled into a chair in the Meiji candy factory with her tall, dark-haired boyfriend who was looking rather amazed at her. "So they have used these components that occur with in floo powder, but they have been unable to single out the items necessary for a drinkable form." She explained the piles of data around him. "Let's add a little Zinc and a tweak of lemon grass." She wrote it down on a chart and added little bits of both into a beaker.  
  
"Now to test it." She took a sip and poof! She was standing in the middle of an icy field. "? This is not the ice cream parlor...I guess I wasn't clear enough." She took another sip. Tropical beaches and a warm salty breeze greeted her. "No...though a drink would be nice."  
  
She walked up the beach and ordered a beachcomber and drank it thoughtfully. The Meiji building. She took another sip of the potion.  
  
"It worked!" She grinned in triumph.   
  
"Seresuta-chan, you're a geniuos!" The slender boyish figure of a Japanese young man was wrapped around her.  
  
"Toshiya...can't breath..." She flailed. He released her and settled for draping on her shoulder. "Good boy. Now we need to work on making it more accurate."  
  
"I suggest a bit more concentration on the Sulfate Illisidens and a reduction in the...Are you ok?"  
  
"I just had this strange Fayal-Snape-enjoying work feeling come over me...Must have Pocky!" She lunged for a box of the sesame cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. After stuffing a whole box in her mouth at once she chewed happily. "Beher!"  
  
"What?" He gave her some root beer to drink and waited for her to swallow.  
"Better. So anyway, less of the Phosphate Illisidens."  
  
"You are incredible!" He kissed her with a very large grin. "Let's see if we can get this to work properly!"  
  
"But what if I don't want your naughty little mind whisking your body off to dangerous places."  
  
"I'm sure there are none more dangerous then in your hands." He turned back to the beakers.  
  
"You sweet talker you." She tousled his hair, before returning to their project.  
  
  
  
Fayal woke up and picked up the daily prophet. "Meiji discovers the true potion for teleportation. Toshiya Meigi, the multi-millionaire Garodo Meiji's son created the elixir of travel last night with his fiancée Celesta Robbins who was over for holiday.  
  
Though the ingredients are being closely guarded a very costly prototype will be hitting the markets in a few weeks. It will not be for the faint of heart or the light of wallet for perhaps a year, but until then we can have the satisfaction of knowing it is on it's way  
  
Our only knowledge is that there are both Phosphate and Sulfate Illisidens in it." She finished scanning the paper, then jumped up and pulled on her clothes excitedly and took off down the hall.  
  
She ground to a halt in front of Snape's office, just as the door opened. Snape jumped a bit as did she. She was standing with her hair flying out wildly in all directions and she was flushed from running through the castle. "Did you read the paper?!?"  
  
"I did." He opened the door wide and stepped aside to let her in. She came with out coaxing. "Celesta..."  
  
"She isn't back yet. I came because as we were talking last night we both decided that Phosphate wouldn't be in it but it is so that means there is a component which neutralizes the activity between the two types of Illisidens." She stopped and got a strange look on her face, then looked down at the paper she held. "Fiancé Celesta Robbins?" Sure enough, the picture had a very hot Oriental boy with long hair chased by Celesta. They ran around and around giggling merrily. "I don't believe it."  
  
"Do you know anything about this boy?"  
  
"Nope, I never ask about her affairs. There are to many to keep up with. It's her hobby like most people collect items of one kind or another." She shrugged. Then she went back to the potion like a dog gnawing on a bone. "Perhaps the reason it works is the Illisidens act on the body to transport it at will instead of causing destruction."  
  
"I don't like it. She should be more responsible."  
  
"Get over it, she is going to do things her way just like all ways. Nothing can stop her so you might as well ignore it, or get over it. Have you eaten breakfast?" She sat in a chair and picked up a little bell. She rang it and waited.  
  
"No." He sat down stiffly across from her. "I don't want her to get hurt..."  
"She knows what she is doing. She has been on her own all of her life. She hardly ever saw her mum and what with her imaginary father, she was alone a lot."  
  
"I should have realized..."  
  
"Ha, not only were you drugged at the time, but she never let on and those blue eyes and that brown hair doesn't scream Snape was here." She snickered as he went ever so slightly pink.  
  
"Sir be wanting something? Miss! Miss rang for Blinky?"  
  
"Yes Blinky, could you bring breakfast for Mister Snape and myself?"  
  
"Yes Miss as the Miss wishes." She turned around and went scampering off to do Fayal's bidding.  
  
They sat in silence until the food was brought to them, then they ate in silence...original. "Um professor..."  
  
"Yes?" He sounded fare more eager he normally would have.  
  
"Errr...Um...Eh...Sorry, I ahhh!" Fayal was startled as a very ungraceful Celesta appeared in her scrambled eggs and toast.  
  
Snape was busy choking on his bacon as Celesta complained about the squishy ketchup covered eggs. "Well, it's getting more accurate...almost to accurate." She scrambled off of the table. "Well at least I wasn't in the middle of anything important!"  
  
"CELESTA!" Fayal goggled at her.  
  
"Celesta, we must talk. I hate him."  
  
"What who what? I am not in the state of understanding." She cocked her head to the side and made a confused face.  
  
"This Meiji boy, you can not marry him! He is, he is...It isn't right!" She had never heard him speak with such conviction.  
  
"Ummm, excuse me, but you haven't even met him and who do you think you are telling me what to do?!? After all I am..." She stopped arguing and did a little counting on her fingers. "Twenty years old!" She turned and stomped out flinging little bits of food as she squished away.  
  
"Well, that was unique." Fayal got up and rang for a servant. "I should be going. Excuse me, bye." She dashed off. With a start, she realized she was still in her pajamas and robes. She hurried off to her room to get dressed and do something with her hair before classes. 


	4. Demented Times

Chapter 4 Demented Times  
  
Shock of all shocks, when Lupin came down with a bad case of something or the other Professor Dumbledore asked Celesta to take charge of some of his Defense against the Dark Arts classes that Snape couldn't cover on Friday.  
  
She took this time to make the game of Quidditch just a bit more hazardous then ever before. She instructed her class on defense against Fire Pixies, then set half a dozen loose on the Quidditch field. If your broom was in one piece at the end of the game you got one point for your house and a passing mark for the day.  
  
"This isn't right! You're insane!" A fifth year argued once 'Miss Robbins' had explained the game.  
  
"Listen up you ickle baby, enemy don't wait until you are ready for them. You have to be able to think fast, and react faster when you are working with such things as dark arts. Do you think Voldemort would wait for you to fend off one of his death eaters before zapping you with lightening? Some how, pardon me if I'm making assumptions here, but I don't think he's gonna be that patient." At her speaking of You-Know-Who's name, the class went pale and silent. "You sissies. Get up there and do it!"  
  
"But you..." A third year whispered.  
  
"Oh please, just because I say his name it isn't like Voldemort is going to appear and kill us all." Celesta slapped her hands on her hips.  
  
"Mwhahahahaaaa!" Evil laughter echoed around them, then a dark cloaked figure leapt out from behind a bleacher.  
  
"Oh my God it is You-Know-Who!" One of the fifth year boys sounded like he was about to laugh then faint from terror.  
  
"He's going to kill us! Eee!" Another echoed.  
  
Then a second year began screaming.  
  
"For Pete's sake! That's not Voldemort, it's Ryn!"  
  
"Don't kill us!" A third year was crying.  
  
"She's just wearing a big cloak..." Celesta was grumbling now. She jerked off Ryn's hood, exposing her grinning face. "Now what have we learned from this?"  
  
"Ryn's the Dark Lord!" A forth year passed out.  
  
"Nooo, Ryn's not Voldemort. What we have learned is that appearances can be deceiving." Robbins looked like she had the beginnings of a headache. And she was used to causing the headaches, the tables turning on her was far beyond injustice.   
  
She continued. "Plus had that been Voldemort you would all be dead now...I probably would have help...Now what you should have done was cast petrificus totalus, not that it would have done a whole lot of good on him, but that's beside the point."  
  
A fifth year boy giggled himself into unconsciousness. "I'm starting to feel Lupin got the better deal today..." She nudged him with her toe. "That's it! Get on those brooms! Object lesson over."  
  
By then end of the day Ryn had been set ablaze five times or so and plummeted to the ground. The pretty fire kept distracting her. But the rest of her classes could stop a Fire Pixy at fifty paces.   
  
  
  
Fayal and Aurora sent off their Bertie Bott's Digest to the company for final revisions and a list of one hundred flavor combinations you'd never create alone like beer-battered shrimp and chocolate rice crispy treat squares. They had just put out one before school started, but it was November and another one was due to hit the stores before Thanksgiving. Only four issues came out a year.  
  
Then they went back up in the horrible weather to the Quidditch Pitch. The two Ravenclaws got into their row and sat after being blown from town. Poor Ryn was going to be fighting the terrible wind. The wind forced the players to stagger onto the field and once the game began the insult added to injury were the large raindrops that began to pelt them. They used an umbrella charm, but the players had no such device at their disposal. Some actually had umbrellas that ran away in gusts.  
  
Canary-yellow robes lined one side, scarlet robes down the other, and it began. Madam Hooch yelled out "Mount your brooms." Not that anyone heard her. It was like watching a snowy television screen. Every so often you could see something going on, but nothing earth moving. So only a little snatch of commentary here and there told them what was going on beyond their vision.   
  
To their surprise it looked like Hufflepuff was sunk, Gryffindor was layering on the points to the toll of fifty when time out was called.   
  
Wood called it and his team huddled under an umbrella.  
  
"I think they are doing Impervius on Harry's glasses." Aurora remarked as she spotted the wave of a wand. Sure enough, he was back on his broom and actually doing well.  
  
That's when they spotted the snitch. Cedric Diggory was racing for it before Potter reacted. They zoomed to close the gap between them and Diggory caught the snitch! Then they realized that Harry Potter was falling from fifty feet. Dementors were on the field! Dumbledore was on the field a moment later, waving his wand. Harry slowed and settled in the mud. The headmaster turned on the dementors and a huge Patronus chased them off.  
  
Potter was magicked on to a stretcher and floated up to the school. Most thought the boy was dead and there was Diggory, who wanted to call it off, but they won and though it wasn't a happy win it was valid.   
  
The three went to their room. "That poor kid, everything happens to him." Ryn was soaking wet.  
  
"Certain people must attract it." Fayal nodded. "Go take a hot bath and I will call you up some soup and hot bread."  
  
"Mmm. Ok." She wandered into the bathroom, leaving a soggy trail.  
  
Fayal used a drying charm on the floor in the room and down the hall, then called the kitchen for food.  
  
An elf had warmed the room with a nice cozy fire and comforters lay across the bottom of the beds. Thick feather filled ones, Fayal noted as Nwyffiant made off with one that had pushed out of the material. Thoughts of Harry seeing Mister Blacky (the big black dog) at the match and reacting to him in such a shocked way were chased away.  
  
"Hey, stop deflating my blanket!" She noted a nice sized pile he had made. She magicked them back into the blanket and fed him as well as a menagerie of other animals. Bob (griffin), Panic (the small flitty owl of Fayal's), and Radar (gray striped tomcat that Fayal had received for her birthday in the mail yesterday).  
  
Then there where Celesta's Manic (gray tabby cat), Fruit Loops (the fruit bat was an engagement present from her fiancée), Striker (snake), Spooky (mouse number one), mousy, (mouse number two), and Creepy (mouse number three) who also came running.  
  
  
  
Monday Lupin came back to work, looking more thin and frail then ever before. Everything went smoothly until Fayal's Birthday. It was nearly the same day as Arika's so she planned it with her. They had it in a dungeon room with the permission of Snape after a lot of complements about his teaching of the Dark Arts and his wonder in potions. Fayal just mentioned it and he arranged for the room for her.  
  
Lots of people showed up. But Fayal was troubled. Celesta didn't appear. Knowing her to be a bit of a free spirit, she tried not to take it personally. She had fun despite the nagging feeling that something was wrong. A hand full of people wandered with her to her room just before dinner.   
Celesta was in the room packing up her things.  
  
"What are you doing?" Fayal asked curiously.  
  
"I'm going off to work for Meiji, not that it's any of your business. I don't live here any more so you can't rule my life." The hate was so that everyone just stared at her. "I am going to succeed even though you don't want me to." She drank a bit of potion and disappeared with her things.  
  
"Um...bye?" Fayal blinked. "That was new."  
  
  
  
That hadn't been the best birthday in the world but even on a normal day it would have sucked to loose your best friend of five years. Now, that wasn't the worst of it. The bomb dropped the next day when in the Daily Prophet arrived and Celesta had spoken with Rita Skeeter about the horrors of living with Fayal Wood, the enslavement, the bad influencing, the shattering of a fragile young life.  
  
It went on to how she used her to get to her father. Her father was unnamed, but the implications were awful. Fayal trying to be the adult she was supposed to be, resisted the urge to let Rita interview her. She asked people not to think badly of her. There had to be an explanation.  
She let it drop and practiced for the Quidditch match.  
  
"Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff, a true trial of brains against niceness?" Lee started out the match. "Er...This is Lee Jordan and I am bringing you the second match of the season of Quidditch at end of November. Cedric Diggory leads the Hufflepuffs onto the field. Great seeker and captain by the way. Next is the cutest girl on the team Ryn O-me-arse...sorry that's O'Mearz I've been told. And...Here is the line up and the pitch!"  
  
Fayal and Aurora set off to make chaos out of the field with a nod. They had been practicing to keep the bluggers flying back and forth between them with brutal force and accuracy. With the other team worrying about being flattened, the Ravenclaw team took charge of the field.  
  
It was a slaughter. Ravenclaw was merciless. Relentless and amazing were the words used in reference to the game for days.  
  
  
  
Two weeks before end of term the sky lightened, leaving the world in a dazzling opalescent of white frost. Shimmering fairy lights filled the charms classroom and the feeling of Christmas was thick. And the trip to Hogsmeade on their last Saturday left everyone buzzing.  
  
Fayal had done her Christmas shopping all year and had no reason to go and some couldn't or also didn't want to go. So they decided to play Quidditch.   
  
Perry was in the stands before he was asked to commentate and they managed to scrape up two teams.   
  
"The Chasers for the Black Team are, Ryn O'Mearz Seventh Year who is also serving as Captain, Marguerite Peace-Good of Fourth Year, and Aural Finnigan of Sixth Year. Beating are Fayal Wood of Seventh Year, and Karen Babylon another Fourth Year. Their Keeper is Fifth Year Karen Waters and their Seeker is Laura Hsu a Seventh Year. Their line up looks pretty good. Let's see what Orange Team has in store for them!  
  
"The Chasers for the Orange Team are, Tim Shepherd Seventh Year, Vector Friedman of Fourth Year, and Michael Lunar of Sixth Year. Beating, are Bruce of Sixth Year who is also serving as Captain and Selxson Drasen Fifth Year. Their Keeper is Seventh Year Oliver Wood and their Seeker is Neville Longbottom a Third Year.   
  
"If these boys don't want to be the losers for the whole year, then they need to make the effort. And so the game is ready to begin. By the way, our beloved Potions Master Professor Snape is out Ref for this event. And here's the pitch!"  
  
"Shepherd hopped on that Quaffle like a frog on a June bug! And off shoot O'Mearz and Finnigan after him. Friedman is holding off Peace-Good while O. Wood sets up to intercept. Babylon gums up Shepherd's plans with a Bludger. Drasen shoves Shepherd aside and smashes that Bludger back at Black Team. Finnigan moves to the left desperately, but oh! She's been clipped. Can she go on? Looks like that little bruise isn't going to ground her.  
  
"Orange scores ten points, alright boys, that's the ticket! But quick as you please O'Mearz has captured the Quaffle, and is zooming off towards the opposite end of the field and to her boyfriend O. Wood."  
  
"She dodges a speeding Bludger using the sloth grip technique. Then she rights herself to take on the Orange Keeper. Don't they make a cute couple? Anyway Friedman and Lunar are ganging up on her. Watch out! Oh they'll feel that in the morning. Friedman and Lunar had a midair collision. As smooth as that was it distracted Wood and Black scores ten."  
  
"There is a mad scuffle for the possession of the Quaffle. Finnigan comes out of the mass rocketing up in a spiral with it in her possession. Lunar is nearly hit by a Bludger, but Bill Voldemort defends him, hitting that Bludger to what the heck!?!  
  
"The club shattered, sending toothpicks into Bill Voldemort and Lunar! Ewe...The wild Bludger turns on O'Mearz! Get out of the way! Oh my God ladies and gentlemen, this is amazing! In a total act of heroism Oliver sacrificed himself to save Ryn! Tackling the Bludger fifty feet up knocked him off his broom and he's going down! Ryn grabs his robes and they are falling together in a more controlled and slow manner."  
  
Professor Snape had pulled out his wand by this time and used a feather spell on them so they were not hurt when they landed. The other Bludger was hurtling around and went for Fayal. Snape cast a freezing spell on the Bludger, right before it hit her and she went down in a heap. He didn't have time to break her fall. He rushed to her side as several others had done. "Let me see. Stand back." He ordered the teens who all obeyed him. The thing had teeth and was gnawing on her arm!  
  
He cast a spell ender, but nothing happened.  
  
Fayal whimpered. "Protective jinx."  
  
He nodded and put a spell protecting jinx on it and the Bludger stopped moving. After magicking her onto a stretcher and having Friedman put that Bludger away as well as the Quaffle, Snape cast the same spell on the other Bludger and relieved Oliver of it. Once the four victims were on stretchers he told Ryn to lead them to the hospital wing and questioned the other students.  
  
None of them could tell him anything, so he erased their memory and sent them off to play, all except Neville who he made catch the snitch, knowing that erasing more of Neville's memory might damage him. He could keep a secret. Once he had caught it, in less then three minutes, he was sent to Hogsmeade and Snape took the box of offensive objects to Hooch.  
  
He made his way quickly to the hospital to check on the students after leaving the flying lessons instructor with the daunting task of learning who did it.  
  
Everyone would be ready to go home after that evening was spent resting, except Fayal who was bed ridden while her arm was repairing. Broken bones and most of the meat on the back of her arm was gone, and she was under a heavy sleeping spell.  
  
When everyone was back from Hogsmeade they went to dinner. That evening Oliver received a letter from home when he sat in his place. He opened and read it.  
"Dear Oliver and Fayal,  
Please do not come home, Joseph, Zachariah, Ashelie, and Michaela have the wizarding flu. I know it will be terrible for you if you catch it. I have sent some money so you can go do as you please for Christmas.  
Love, Mom/ Aunt Lillianna"  
  
Ryn ran up and tossed a card down. "Will you come with me for Christmas? Mom and Dad have gone off for a visit to Uncle Fredrick Lupin's in Hawaii." She pointed parts of the letter as she spoke. "They have Nathan and me to watch the farm and we will definitely need the help if you can spare it."  
  
He smiled at her his rarely seen nervous and shy grin. "I just got an owl from my mother and she told me to go somewhere else for Christmas because the family is sick."   
  
"Oh no, I'm sorry!" She frowned, putting a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Well, I'm feeling rather lucky at the moment, spending winter vacation with the hottest Hufflepuff girl and all." His bad boy grin had come to his face, his eyes glinting as he playfully teased her.   
  
"Oh Oliver!" She gave him a playful shove.   
  
"Now I know why you aren't a beater, absolutely no power behind that." He poked her in the arm.  
  
She poked him back. "I might have to learn so I can keep you in line."  
  
"Oh come on, you think I'm rogue and sexy. You don't want me to change." The grin now spread from ear to ear.  
  
"Baby yes baby..." She spoke in a monotone voice.  
  
"Um, have you heard anything about Fayal?"  
  
"No..."  
  
"They blamed it on a transfiguration accident. I could believe that if I hadn't known for myself."  
  
"Did you hear what happened to Keeley?" Ryn asked after nodding.  
  
"No...Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him around..."  
  
She bent low and whispered. "Snape got pissed because the memory charm didn't work on him, probably because his is to ditzy but anyway, he turned him into a ferret."  
  
"A ferret?"  
  
"A very cute chocolate ferret. When McGonagall finally found out that the ferret was a student he had been stuck for hours. He went strait to bed."  
  
"Wow, I never thought Snape would do something that outrageous...but then again it is Perry." Soon they had owled their parents to let them know of the arrangements and were happily discussing Christmas day. They left the great hall and went up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey told them that there was no possible way Fayal would be able to go home for at least three days.  
  
Snape came stalking out past Pomfrey and paused to tower over them. "Do not disturb Madam Pomfrey, Miss Wood is in capable hands I assure you." It a practiced smooth movement he swept past them and down the hall.  
  
  
  
So early the next morning they boarded the Hogwarts express and were whisked away to King's Cross Station. The ride was long, but the Weasley twins and Jordan provided a bit of entertainment.  
  
The duo bid their friends farewell and went to a curb and put their wands into the air. The Knight Bus picked them up and took them to the O'Mearz Griffin Ranch and Farm. Well, to the foot of the drive and then they had to walk up it. A mile up to the house felt more like about five by the time they reached the front door.  
  
"Nathan?" Ryn looked around. It was late and she was hungry.  
  
"Yah?" He wandered out of the kitchen. "Oh, I forgot to come help you with your bags…sorry." He shrugged. "I was trying to figure out mom's handwriting. Can you read it?" He shoved a package at her.  
  
"Cast Ensindeo and allow to cook for a full two minutes."  
  
"Oh." He took it back, glancing at their guest for the first time. "I thought Fayal was coming."  
  
"I'm her cousin Oliver."  
  
"Some how, I don't think this is who mom was expecting." He turned and walked away from them. "He can stay in their room. Put your stuff up." He was back in the kitchen.  
  
"Um...this way." She smiled.  
  
"I'm not supposed to be here am I?" He poked her in the side.  
  
"Not exactly."  
  
  
  
Fayal woke sluggishly. She felt thirsty and stiff. She sat up slowly and glanced around with a yawn. Hospital wing...Fun, fun, fun. She started to get up and was startled by Snape sitting up abruptly. He had been asleep with his face on the bed she noted from the large sheet wrinkle pressed into his forehead.   
  
"Stay in bed, I'll get the nurse." He looked extremely worried.  
  
"I'm fine. I just want to go to the bathroom." Despite his objections she got up and wandered into the small toilette.   
  
After a few minutes she came out, face washed and hair back in a bun. Madam Pomfrey was waiting by Professor Snape with a frown on her face. "Get back in bed this instant. Honestly Wood, you'd think you had the common sense. But then again, you are half Weasley." Fayal rolled her eyes and did as she was told. She yawned as she was inspected.  
  
"There, you see, nothing has fallen off or is going to." She squirmed as Poppy finished her inspection. "May I go now?"  
  
"Just where are you in such a hurry to go? Vacation started three days ago. I don't see the hurry." Severus raised an eyebrow. Upon the look of surprise he received he nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, quite a nap you took."  
  
"So it would seem."  
  
  
  
The first few days the at the O'Mearz residence they took to settle in and pick up things from town they needed. Then they decorated for Christmas with fresh greenery and berries.   
  
Finally Ryn showed Oliver around the farm. They took the tour on broomstick and she led them over the wheat fields and to the Griffin pins.   
  
Ryn strode into a large barn in overalls and a long sleeved plaid shirt. Oliver followed in tan slacks and a blue shirt. He looked around wide-eyed as Ryn took a bag of feed and scooped out a large bucket full. She leaned slightly to the side because of the weight as she opened a tall pen. Oliver hurried over and took the bucket. She smiled and walked into the stall. She grabbed his hand and pulled him by the arm when he didn't follow.  
  
His eyes enlarged as he saw a giant griffin, larger then a standard horse in the stall. She took his hand and placed it on the creature's side and he smiled, petting it.  
  
They had a great time petting them and seeing if Ryn could remember all two hundred fifty seven different names.   
  
There were two kinds, the riding sized and the toy sized. They got to be about the size of a horse and a dog.  
  
Then she showed him the laying barn and an egg with swirls of gold and copper across its surface. "We can come back and check it every day until it hatches." She smiled at him, her face lighting up.  
  
He smiled at her then kissed her on the cheek. She stared at him, a blush rising to her cheeks. "Oh, sorry, I should have asked shouldn't I have?"  
  
She just shook her head and smiled shyly.   
  
  
  
Wood and O'Mearz sat together eating grapes, cheese, and bread on the grass in the pasture.   
He grinned. "You want me to warn you if I want to kiss you again?" He brought up a very strange subject for not having seemed to think of it for hours.  
  
She tossed a grape at him, watching it ping off of his forehead in satisfaction before jumping up and running away.  
  
He laid still in surprise for a moment then was on his feet and to take chase. He tackled her and they went rolling in the grass. He looked down at her grinning wildly from his perch atop her, both breathing hard from running. He got up as a slight blush crept across his cheeks and offered her a hand up.  
  
She accepted it and they walk up a winding path through the meadow and to the precipice above the ocean. They stood on some rocks and looked out at the waves, arm in arm. The sun sank slowly in the sky, lighting it with colours that no magic could summon. "I do believe this has been the most perfect day of my life." He kissed her gently on the neck. "There you see, relatively painless." He grinned into her hair.  
  
"Oliver, stop teasing me." She gave him a playful pouty smile. "We better head back before it gets dark."  
  
  
  
Several days later Oliver and Ryn watched a golden griffin egg hatch in a large nest in the barn. It broke through the shell and stretched up, meeting the two faces full of wonder and excitement with lethargic disinterest. It climbed to its wobbly legs.   
  
They jumped up and down excitedly, then he whirled her around in the air as she shrieked. He sat her down, mumbling an apology. She giggled and kissed him on his chin before turning away.  
The tiny griffin stumbled, then got back up. It made a funny little chirping mew and began chomping on its shell. "What's he doing?"  
  
"She is eating her egg so she can get all the vitamins out of it. Females are greens, reds, and browns. Males are the more shocking colors." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.  
  
The early part of the day was spent watching the Griffy play, but finally they tired of it and went flying. Together they shot up a steep hill on their broomsticks, colourful flowers whipped by in streaks as they headed for some large cliffs. They zoomed strait up the rocky face of the jagged landscape, ignoring a path that snaked up off to the side.  
  
It was her Quidditch training course. Every day she flew through the fields, the forest, and the rocks. She was awesome at quick stops and avoiding disaster. He was in awe.  
  
  
  
Every day of Fayal's was spent in the library, reading, writing, or contemplating what she was going to do to get herself out of that place. Finally she had exhausted the potions, transfiguration, and divination books available to her along with several other subjects she knew for fun. Well, that is what she told herself, but she was really just out of paper.  
  
Bored out of her skull she went and put on her winter robes, scarf, and gloves before plummeting into the snow. She tried to build a snowman, but this only came out marginally acceptable. He looked like Scooby Do with antlers. Oh well...She magicked him back into the beautiful virgin snow around her until no trace was left.  
  
She was heading back in when she spotted the Potions Master walking near by. She grabbed a hunk of snow and lobbed it at him. It hit him in the arm. He turned and stared at her in surprise. The look on his face was priceless. She began to giggle.  
  
Glowering he pulled out his wand and with a wave and an ill muttered word an easy two dozen snowballs rose from the ground and went hurtling towards her. Enchanted as they were she couldn't side step them.  
  
She took off running with a grin on her face. "Incendio!" She cast behind her melting some. Others caught up with her, pelting her smartingly.  
  
He watched her for a moment, then continued into the school. About a minute later he heard running behind him and turned sharply as a ruby faced Fayal grabbed him by the arms and shoved him into the path of a baker's half dozen snow balls.  
  
"Go to your room." He frowned.  
  
"They were your snow balls." She laughed. "I need to go to Diagon Alley, who should I ask?"  
  
"Well, since you are already here, me I suppose. I'm going day after Christmas. Will you survive until then?"  
  
"Two whole days...I've only been out of paper for one and look at all the trouble I've caused." She shrugged. "Maybe."  
  
"You may borrow some until then." He eyed her before shivering.  
  
"Your should have cast Impervius." She told him before casting a drying and warming charm on him. "Sorry about that, but it serves you right, charming snow balls."  
  
"Thank you for that observation. You may go to the potions lab and get parchment from my desk when ever you wish." He walked away.  
  
  
  
Oliver and Ryn walked together. Hand in hand the couple wandered down the beach, as the waves lick at the sandy shore. Birds flew over head singing the glories of the morning. They walked back up to the house to do chores.  
  
After an hour or so they walked up to the General Grocery, under coaxing of Nathan. Mom's mystery meals were getting to him so he sent the two with some money to buy Christmas dinner. But the sign read closed.   
  
He looked around, hearing someone talking far off in the quiet place. Oliver pointed down the street at an outside wedding. "Want to check it out?"  
  
"Alright."  
  
They walked up to the edge as a priest said the final amen to the prayer.  
  
Everyone clapped and got up to clear the floor of chairs under a director's instruction. Then they formed a circle and they began to clap in rhythm as a band began to play. He held out his hand to her once people began to trickle into the center.  
  
She took it and they whirled out on the dance floor. They twisted and wove with the other folk, the up beat tempo moving them along quickly.  
  
The group formed a circle, moving one way, then the other. Braking off, he twirled her round as they circled the floor.  
  
They stopped and applauded at the end of the song, breathless and smiling. He put an arm around her and they walked out of the dance area. They stopped outside it and looked at each other before he bent down low and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss deepened...  
  
  
  
Fayal woke on Christmas to find that there were several more presents then she was expecting. Mum and Da had sent her a box set of new edition advanced Wizarding books; Potions, Charms, and Care of Magical creatures.  
  
Professor Flitwick had given her "The Charming Witch" a helpful guide to charms in the laboratory. She had given him a diary filled with charms she had invented for practical purposes.   
  
McGonagall had given her a set of Transfiguration toys that had included hints and secrets to getting it right. She had gotten Minerva a dressing gown in her clan tartan, after over hearing her saying she could use another.  
  
Lupin had sent her a thank you card and a black rose he had to have gotten from the dark forest. He was ill again and to make his time go by she had sent him a book of jokes and a reinforcement charm for use on his robes.  
  
Hagrid had given her some of his best treacle fudge. She loved the stuff. It could fill you up with one piece for hours. And the list continued through most teachers, ending with Dumbledore who judging from the candies called Laffy Taffy was delighted with his socks.  
  
She laid everything across her bed piles of books, candies, and school supplies. Practicality was a strong point in most gifts she gave and received. To her utmost disappointment nothing had come from the one person she really had wished to give her a present. Snape rather avoided Christmas, but she gave him a gift every year stubbornly. This year it had been a Muggle Herbology book she had come across during the summer and thought he would find entertaining.  
  
What had she thought? After nine years of being an ass she thought he would change? She shook her head. Stupid. She got dressed, picked up certain books and set off for breakfast with the librarian. She was the only person who was allowed to eat in the library and that was only because she was so much of a book lover. They sat together eating crumpets and discussing the certain wonders of the new books she got.  
  
  
  
After Ryn, Oliver, and Nathan got up and did chores, they had a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and opened gifts. Nathan gave Ryn a book on Werewolves. Her mother and father had sent her a surfboard with a note that said "for this summer." Oliver gave her a pair of specially designed Quidditch Goggles. Fayal sent her a bottle of temporary hair changer and she ran around the rest of the day with hot blue hair.  
  
Oliver got some sweets from home, a sweater, and a new set of gloves. Ryn had gotten a Quaffle signed by the Chuddly Cannons through a friend of a friend and presented it with a giggle.  
  
Thies was before the tree caught fire some how and the rest of the day was spent airing out the house and magicing the soot off the ceiling.  
  
  
  
Ryn received an owl early the next day and was shocked to discover while her parents were in Hawaii they had betrothed her to some guy she still didn't even know the name of.  
  
Although she refrained from telling Oliver, it by no means was a secret that something was bothering her. He suggested she nap and relax for a while and she decided it couldn't hurt.  
  
When she awoke, she pulled on an old dress and put some dressy clips in her hair. She wanted to be pretty for him. "Oliver?" She stepped out of the room to find him sitting at the window looking out side.  
  
With a smile he stood up. "Put this on."  
  
Ryn was taken blind folded out under the stars by Oliver. He took it off to reveal a picnic by candlelight. They settled down on the linen and ate cold chicken sandwiches and apple slices charmed to keep their colour.  
  
They smiled at one another, leaning forward to kiss. Some old guy came out of the darkness swinging a pitchfork. They broke apart in surprise. Oliver wielded his wand, then glanced at her and put it away. He took her hand and they ran away.  
  
They came to a tree surrounded clearing and stopped, looking up at the beautiful sky. They stood together, breathing in the cool night air until they had calmed. Night noise was in chorus around them and with a wave of his wand it became music. He turned and bowed to her, offering her his hands. She looked startled.  
  
Hesitantly she took them and he pulled her into him. They began to sway together. Her dress fluttered in a gentle breeze as they circled slowly. She rested her head on his shoulder and leaned against him. He pulled back from her and turned her, before pulling her back to him.  
  
He put his forehead against hers and just smiled down into her eyes. Her very being was all a-glow. He wouldn't have traded one second for the world.  
  
  
  
Snape was banging on Fayal's door early the next morning. She stuck her head out and blinked at him. "Did you not wish to go to Diagon Alley?"  
  
"A little warning would be nice. Give me a minute." She hurriedly left, dressed, grabbed her bag, and was back out the door, brushing her hair as she went. She stifled a yawn as the two walked to the front steps and boarded a coach that traveled quickly along on a magical course through the snowy landscape.  
  
She watched him sit stiffly and gaze sternly back at her. His black cloak was thick and looked to be made of wool. "I didn't get the chance to wish you Happy Christmas yesterday, so Happy Christmas Professor Snape."  
  
"I suppose you didn't think to look in the potions room?" He sniffed.  
  
"On Christmas day? Oh, I guess since we were in the library that would stand to reason that you...Sorry." She frowned, fiddling with the buttons on her burgundy dress-coat that reached to the top of the shoes. "I didn't realize you came near to being as obsessive as me over work."  
  
"Hum. Nor I you. Would you like your present now?" He looked at her evenly.  
  
"Present? For me?" She was startled. Not only was it the day after, it was something he had never hinted at.  
  
"I must warn you before you get to excited, I just thought it up. Albus, and the others have all contributed to it." He sounded so disapproving of it as he held out a thick envelope he extracted from his robes she just stared at him. "It won't bite."  
  
"Sorry." She took the thick linen colored envelope and flipped it over. The back had the Seal from the Winston-Salem learning community. "What is this?" When he made no move to explain himself she magicked the seal open and pulled out the papers. There were several.  
  
Page one was an acceptance letter. She went stiff and squealed happily. "Honestly, as if you had any doubt that they wouldn't knock down the door to get to you." He took that page from her grasp and settled back, studying her intently.  
  
"Miss Fayal Wood; your house is 45 Green Lain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It has been paid in full for three years of in depth study. It is fully furnished with Muggle conveniences and wizarding necessities. Amenities include house-elf and twenty-four hour ministry floo-hot-line.  
A job has been arranged for you and upon start you will receive food and spending money. Your job will be as an assistant in the middle school (Secondary 1-4th years) at the Winston-Salem school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Potions."  
  
She was grinning so widely that she was hurting herself. "A house? An elf? And a job?"  
  
"Read." He took that page away also and it left the last page. A schedule of her learning sessions began two weeks after school ended.   
  
"Your lesson books are going to be delivered the week you take the N.E.W.T.s. But we would like to give them to you early since you are done with all of your books except Transfiguration which will be your solitary study until then. We discussed it and one NEWT every Saturday if you are willing since it will keep from interfering with anyone's schedules."  
  
"Professor..." She was teary eyed and smiling stupidly as she hugged him suddenly.  
  
"Miss Wood, I realize you're grateful, but please..." He finally gave up struggling against the hug and sat still, listening to her snuffle, muffled by his robes. He pulled out a handkerchief and tucked it in a fist. "Calm down. It wasn't that big a deal."  
  
She calmed herself and put the papers and key he handed her away and dabbed at her eyes with the square cloth. They stopped and he got out of the carriage hurriedly, brushing at a hysterical girl induced wrinkle. He helped her down and she looked around in surprise to see that they were standing in a frosty Diagon Alley. It was not very busy, but not deserted either. She scratched at an itch on her hand as she turned back to find the carriage was gone. She started to ask as Snape slipped a pocket watch back into his cloak, but he began walking away and she forgot in her hurry to keep up while trying not to slip on the icy cobble stones. 


	5. Wood You Love

*note: There is a quote from an interview about Rickman from a fanthat I put in here because it was just so fitting. And I read a few to many articals and it effected my writing... but I think this chapter has the coolest things thus far...NEY YEARS!!!  
  
Chapter 5 Wood You Love  
  
He led the way to Gringotts without so much as a glance over his shoulder. She climbed up the steps with a bounce in her walk and down the rows of Goblins. "Grinrag, how are you doing to day?"  
  
"I am fine thank you for your concern Miss Wood. Are you here to make a withdrawal?" The Goblin looked up from his desk.  
  
"Yes, Professor Snape and I are here for school supplies." She smiled.  
  
"Looks like he has Grimlog to take him down. Did you want to go with him?"  
  
"Might as well save a trip, so not to waste anyone's time." She nodded and went half skipping, half sliding on the smooth marble floor.  
  
They got into a cart and settled themselves, Severus taking the lantern from the Goblin, waited patiently as the little creature climbed in. They were whisked away, down into the torch lit caves.  
  
Soon their breath was coming out in clouds more pronounced then when they were outside. Deeper and around more turns they went until she was completely lost.  
  
The cart lurched and jolted, then pieces of rock began to pelt them. A huge bolder broke loose from the ceiling and came hurtling down at Fayal. Severus shoved her out of the way.  
  
Together they spilled out of the cart and onto the ground. They tumbled onto the stone floor and the lights went out. When the earth settled, there was debris piled up.  
  
Fayal struggled out of the timber and rock and squinted in the magical light of the lantern to see her companion. He was hard to find, black on black, but she finally spotted his ghostly white hand and gently freed him from the litter of stone covering his body. Then she fetched the lantern and looked down at him.  
  
His leg was broken. It was a clean brake and she could fit the bones back in place with out complicating things so she made a splint out of splinters of wood and his ripped robes. Examining him the best she could, she made sure he wasn't going to bleed to death on her. After tying off several gashes she took care of her own scraped legs, hands, and elbows.  
  
She thought quietly before reaching for her wand...It was gone. Great. She frisked the unconscious man before her, but his was also missing.  
  
Gnawing on that fact and the sheer number of wand sized sticks in the darkness she looked around for ideas. With a groan Severus stirred. He sat up with a pained gasp and leaned back against a rock. He glanced around through hooded eyes before speaking. "Well, I don't know about you, but I could use Poppy right now." He winced feeling his side. "What happened?"  
  
"Cave in. My guess is it wasn't natural. Gringotts is supposed to be warded against earthquakes and things of that nature. We are alone in this place. The cart and Goblin are long gone. He may come back with help."  
  
"That was a her." He looked amused by her stricken face. Professor Snape sat up a little stiffer. "Can you find a way out?"  
  
"No...I was hoping you had a way to summon your wand or a natural ability that could help us out." She looked at him in the eye with all the earnestness she could. "I can't help much since all I can do is read minds and frankly the boulders aren't saying much."  
  
Snape gave her a weak smile. "I am afraid I am little use since I only have the ability of Parcel-mouth and the ability to make plants revive, not feeling either is helpful or I am up to performing at this time. Now what do you suppose we should do?"  
  
"Could you please not be teacher for a minute?" She looked mutinous. "I need participation, not a watcher. I'm going to try and find one of our wands while you...rub these sticks together and make a fire." She grabbed a few pieces of wood and shoved them into his hands.  
  
He looked at her blankly. "What?" His lips were the slightest bit blue and his nose cherry red.  
  
"Rubbing two sticks together causes the friction to heat the wood and in result it will catch fire." She explained the process shortly then left his side, sifting through piles of debris. "Just one wand, that's all we need." She started a pile of wood as she searched with no luck.  
  
"Amazing..." Snape breathed behind her. She turned and noted he had the sticks smoldering like mad. She brought him more wood and together they made a large fire to chase away the cold. "How did you learn this?"  
  
"Muggle books on survival. Primitive, but useful when in extreme circumstances." Fayal looked at him smugly.   
  
"I see." She noted he had some color coming back to his lips and he was looking better off.  
  
"Should we become so distant from the basic natures that we can't survive with out magic?" She grumbled.  
  
"I suppose not. It is just easy to take magic for granted." He closed his eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh.  
  
She was feeling rather ragged when she admitted defeat. No wand. Her hands were bleeding and had wood fragments embedded in her fingers, not to mention numb with cold as were her nose and ears. Her back pained her from stooping to sift through the mess.  
  
"I need to rest." She walked back to the fire and sat near her professor. She hugged her arms to her chest and shivered.  
  
"They are most likely magicking for us now. Everything will be fine." He put an arm around her and pulled her to him slightly.  
  
Sleepily she rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed his fingers in her hair as his warmth leached through her clothes.  
  
  
  
Ryn and Oliver spent the late afternoon sitting in the field of bright and colourful flowers.   
They made crowns of flowers and put them on one another's head. Then they played in the trees on the edge of the meadow. He picked some apples and they ate them in the bow of the tree.  
  
He laced his fingers through her hair and stroked through the silky strands absently as she recounted a story of her and her uncle surfing and forgetting their things down the beach and loosing them to the tide.  
  
They laughed about it a bit when she finished telling her tale. "I miss being a kid."  
  
"Yah, some things it would be nice for someone else to worry about things for me. Here we are almost leaving school, just a few short months left and I'm already thinking different. Like Harry, if there is a chance that is going to happen again you know with the dementors, we might have to forfit." His handsome face was set in a heavy frown.  
  
"Forfit? Couldn't someone play in his place?" Coming from the man before her who breathed Quidditch plans in his sleep it was terrible.  
  
"It isn't like I want to leave with out ever winning a cup, but it's not fair to make him quit alone. We are a team. Either we all play or we don't. We were damn lucky it didn't kill him before. I don't see many other choices in the matter."  
  
"Don't count your Griffins before they're hatched. Talk to Potter and see what he says. I'm sure Dumbledore has taken precautions to keep them away. Just relax and take everything in pace."  
  
  
  
Fayal awoke in her bed and stretched. She rolled over and stopped short, nose to nose with a sleeping Potions Master. She bolted out of the bed looking around in confusion. She had no idea where she was. She was wearing a nightdress and her hair was braided back. She looked around the room, but nothing was familiar. Highly polished oak furnature adorned the room and a large picture window was a few feet away.  
  
Finally she went and glanced out the window. Diagon Alley? She was in the Leaky Cauldron... She sank into a chair and waited for someone to appear, after failing to find either clothes or nor a House Elf summoner.   
  
It wasn't terribly long before someone did come along. Tom's stooped figure came into the room with a Medi-Wizard who looked to be fresh out of the medical training school. Maybe five years older then her, he was tall, dark, and rather chunky. His hair was a sandy blond and his eyes nearly black she noted as they flickered around the room, taking everything in.  
  
"And how are we doing today dear?" Tom asked smiling at her toothlessly.  
  
"I have a bit of a headache." She told him with a shrug. Then she furrowed her brow. "What day is it?"  
  
"Twenty ninth." Tom told her.  
  
"Good heavens. School resumes the beginning of January. We should send an owl to Professor Dumbledore...Will Professor Snape be well enough to travel soon?"  
  
"Calm yourself missy." The doctor waggled a finger at her. "You've had a nasty time in Gringotts. Relax."  
  
"Are you a student?" Tom blinked at her.  
  
"Yes, and I believe it would be proper for me to have my own room. Now, will Professor Snape be better soon?"  
  
"In a few days." The doctor nodded as he walked over and surveyed Snape.  
  
"I'm awefully sorry, but all of Diagon Alley is full up with New Years here and all." Tom told her with an apologetic look. "I'll magic a chair into a bed for you if you like. Thought you was a couple."  
  
"Yes please."  
  
He did it immediatly and she sank into it quietly. "I'll bring your breakfast. Madam Malkins should be along any minute with some new robes for you." And she did come, bareing dark red robes for her.   
  
She ate a few crumpits and drank a little tea before going to the bathroom and drawing herself a tub of hot bubbly water. After a lovely bath she dressed in the robes and charmed her hair dry.  
  
She sat near his head with a book and read to herself, changing the compress on his forehead from time to time. "Michalea..." His voice was choked and strained. She looked over her book n surprise at her mother's name. "What I wouldn't give for your friendship right now. I have found myself to be a more pathetic existance as of late and I don't know how to change it." He looked at her in complete missery.  
  
Her eyebrows went up a notch. What was she supposed to do? His fever was affecting him it seemed. "Don't look so surprised. I valued your being my partner more then most anything else in my life. I didn't mean to throw it all away with Voldimort, but I wanted something only he would give me, or pretend to anyway. And then I found myself running back to Dumbledore, the only man who seems to understand your heart even when your mind isn't in line. I've been alone with my sins for so long Michalea."  
  
"Then she arrived, full of high ideals and magic potential beyond comprehention. Your daughter challenged me to stop my self tourture and begin to love my work again. To enjoy life. I feel guilty that in one ear Lucious Malfoy's bratt is bragging about offing a Hyppogriff while in the other Fayal is going on about the intangible magic of Christmas. You should have seen her when she walked into the great hall after the twelve trees were lining the walls with those golden stars glittering and the holly and mistletoe strung down the halls. She glowed like the sun...And it was internal like the suits of armor, yet natural and catching."  
  
"I even forgot about a particularly annoying insident with my likeness in a green dress with a vulture hat until Christmas day in the wake of her smile...I love her Emmy and God I know it's wrong and that I'm not supposed to. She's a student and look at me, double-agent death-eater that's old enough to be her father..."  
  
"Oh God Emmy and here I sit talking to you in my dreams while poor Fayal and I are probably dieing under ground in a cave in. You and your bright hair in perfect curls and radiant skin lookign like an angel. Fayal looks wilder then you, her hair is always in tangles. She looks like a woodland fairy, which I guess is why you named her that hum? You always were a good listener..." And he was asleep.  
  
His furrowed brow in constant self tourture had relaxed and he looked at peace. She couldn't bring herself to let him know that it had been her he had spoken to if he remembered at all. So she brushed her hair into it's usual fluff and crammed it back in a bun.  
  
  
  
Fayal heard a door close and sat up rubbing her eyes. Snape was awake. His bed had been vacated and the bathroom door was firmly shut. When he came out he was bathed and wearing the black robes Malkins had brought for him. "Good morning." She smiled at him. She had braded her hair for the night and was busy putting it back up in a bun.  
  
He opened his mouth looking like he was about to lay into her for something. "Today is the thirty-first, tonight will be a big fire works show and every room in all of Diagon Alley is full up, so we are sharing this one room. We were sharing that bed when I woke up. Can you believe they thought we were a couple? Gringott's is going to buy us new wands. Tom'll bring up breakfast soon." She tried to cover all the bases.  
  
"I was just going to ask if you had seen my boots." He sat in a chair, looking kind of ragged.  
  
"No, sorry." She gave an appologetic smile. "Well, I'm going to get dressed." She went into the bathroom. When she returned Snape hadn't moved. "Are you feeling alright?" She sat down next to him.  
  
"Nothing that a pep-up potion wouldn't fix." The lip curled as he spoke with intense self-mockery, so very disillusioned with himself. The streak of nastiness was crucial to his survival.   
  
"I'll go get breakfast and bring it back." She stood and straitening her robes she walked towards the door. "Anything you want?"  
  
"Coffee." He rubbed his forehead. "You seem inergetic." The words were snide and tone dark.   
  
"I've been awake for two days and have gotten over the initial sleep hang over." She popped out the door and went past the other doors with thier bronze numbering and down the ornate staircase and into the pub. Tom was in the Kitchen frying baccon and eggs. "Morning Tom, need a hand?"  
  
"Well, if you are looking for something to do." He smiled at her and motioned to trays with numbered lids.  
  
"Sure thing. I'll go drop one off with Severus and then take a few around." She stacked tome trays up and went back up the steps and pushed the door to their room open. She handed her teacher a tray, with a promise of fresh brewed coffee in mear minutes before going down the hall knocking on doors and handing trays to groggy occupants.  
  
  
  
  
The little town was having a pot luck feast and a fireworks show much to Ryn's delight. Her brother said that Diagon Alley wouldn't hold one more person and they couldn't go watch the annual wizarding celebration. Mister Fudge sent Dad a note by Floo and he's trying to get more people to stay home. Honestly it was as though they thought Black would be participating in the annual bake off or something.  
  
Nathan, Oliver, and Ryn spent the afternoon in the kitchen trying to do the unthinkable and cook. Breaded chicken and rice that didn't look half bad was the result. The three trooped down and presented their food at the town hall. Soon they were sitting on a bench eating muggle food that was absolutely amazing and waiting for the fireworks to begin.  
  
  
  
Fayal stood on the balcony, bundled against the cold. On tiptoe she craned her neck to look at the massive crowd filling the streets. Her cheeks were pink from the cold and her breath came out in little clouds as she grinned at the chearful people.  
  
"What are you doing?" The tone suggested Snape knew quite well and found it stupid. He moved behind her and looked over her shoulder, the dark hawk like eyes intense. The warmth of him caused her to shiver. "If you are cold, then come in side. Honestly you git."  
  
"And miss the show?! Have you gone completely mental on me?"  
  
He spoke in a voice riddled with strained patience. "You can watch it though the window." She figured he was one step from teeth grinding.  
  
"It wouldn't be the same." She pouted at him over her shoulder. "And I'm not that cold." He looked remarkably hawk or rather raven like with his long thin nose, narrowed eyes, and the pacarious position in which he held his mouth.   
  
"I supose your teeth are chattering in anticipation then." He sounded rather playful in his gruf sort of way. She shrugged, then started in surprise as he folded the front of his robes over her shoulders, drawing her close to him. He was deliciously warm, although completely rigid against her back.  
  
"Ten...Nine...Eight...Seven...SIx...FIve...FOUr...THRee..TWO...ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!" The streets exploded in chearing as the sky above exploded in colourful bursts and snow works drifted down while fairy and lightening bug fountains errupted from the roof tops. Snow works were snow that glowed in different colors much like muggle fire works, only not painful to touch.   
Fairy and lightening bug fountains were illusion spells to look like their name sake swarming around the croud's head. Young and old alike snatched glowing gems from the air laughing gayly. Children caught snow on their tongues to find that each color also came much to their delight with a flavor. Yellow lemon, green mint, red strawberry, blue raspberry, white coconut, and orange tangerine Fayal decided after tasting each poof of snow to come her way.  
  
Butterfly showers came down upon them next, thicker then snow. Then all at once the tornado changed into confetti words that shimmered in neon colors as they drifted down proclaming such things as "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" "A kiss for luck?" "Peace" "Love" Joy" "Happiness" "Have a magical year" "Hug a friend" Sing a song" and probably so many other words the brain would shut down trying to read them all.   
  
The glittering words faded out of sight as a rumbling began over head. A few brilliant flashes of light drew the croud's gaze back to the heavens and a new event unfolded. Lightening zipped across the sky in giant arcs as the thunder rolled over and through them. The electric bolts had branches like tree limbs she noticed wonderingly as in a dangerous dance two colided. The procussion reverberated through her body, making her heart race.   
  
In blues, whites, pinks, and golden yellow the sky's battle errupted again and again. The raging wonder above came to a climax as five bolts came together in a blazing blue crackling ball and burst into smoke that fell on them like fog, light mysteriously from within. People could only see sillouettes of one another through the lavander myst with it's sent of lilacs.  
  
The fog was clearing slowly as a roar filled their ears. A dragon, red as the rising sun came shooting down through the town streets inches from the tallest on looker's heads, clearing away the fog with the wind created from it's passing. Hair and robes whipped about as hats danced off on the substantial brease.  
  
The dragon circled, giving Fayal and Severus a full on look. An odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face they noted a moment before torrents of fire came shooting into the dark sky from it's open, fanged mouths in a mushroom-shaped cloud. "A Chinese Fireball." Snape whispered in her ear.  
  
"Allways the teacher aren't we?" She teased softly before squealing as the dragon rounded on her and flames engulfed them. It was warm and tingly, nothing like she had expected. It even kind of tickled. She clapped her hands as it moved off to breath on the rest of the crowd. "Wow, oh wow!"  
  
"Quite." If she hadn't known better, she would have thought he was fighting a full fledged grin. She lived for those moments when he bubbled over and drown his mask for a moment. Her attention was torn away from him by the dragon roaring again and flying strait up into the air. It breathed a huge ball of fire which engulfed it and the flames bacame peacocks, flamingos, maccaws, ravens, owls, and a few golden snidgets.   
  
The feathered menagerie swarmed over the crowd singing like most curious angels. Feathers began to fill the air as one by one the birds began to disapate. Seizing a handful Fayal discovered they turned into Galleons, Sickles, Knuts, bags of bertie botts, chocolate frogs, magicial toys, hats, and other things she wasn't sure of with one glance. Hastilly shoving things in her pockets she grabbed for more multi colored plumage.  
  
She was laughing and out of breath once the air began to thin. "Snidget." Snape spoke as he pointed the little dancing orb of gold. He pushed past her and stretched out quickly to nab the little creature from the air.  
  
"What's it?" She looked at his hand curiously.  
  
"Here." He handed her a little golden card. "Take your ticket around to each shop and get a prize. Most are usually pretty worth your while."  
  
Then it was raining large blooms. Roses, marigolds, pansies, hydrangias, lavander, and more showered down upon the crowds. The perfume was incredible. Hours had passed much to her surprise and soon the last flower had fallen and a large glowing sign roze above the crowd proclaming the end of the evening.  
  
She plunked herself down on her bed and began sifting through her treasures. "So, tell me Professor, how often do you show up for New Year's?" Bertie Botts in one pile, coins in another, flowers in a pile...  
  
"Every year since I was a seventh year. Even I enjoy a good show now and again." He began unlaoding his pockets of bounty and dropping the trinkets into her pile. "I always give these things to the first child I see." He shrugged when she looked up at him in surprise, his voice a swirling conflation of emotion; at once seductive, disdainful, imperious.  
  
"Tomorrow we are going back to Hogwarts, aren't we?" If his villian act bothered her she would have fled his company years prior.  
  
"In the afternoon. In the morning we need to get our wands and you have to redeem your ticket." He took off his cloke and robes, leaving him standing in pants and a white under shirt. Though he was already fighting the onset of middle aged waistline he had a nice figure, tall and muscular.  
  
His dark mark had been warded into invisibility, but she knew it was there, on his forearm. The centre of his self induced tragity of a life. Stupid mistakes made long ago had pushed this brilliant man into a reclussion that after ten years she still couldn't penetrate more then an hour or so at a time.  
  
Perhaps if people tried to know Severus instead of taking the wicked potions teacher act at face value it might be easier, but only she and Dumbledore seemed to care a rats arse about him. How sad to be in villainy for a score of thirteen years after he turned from his master born of hate.  
  
For the time being, his villainous image lingered, as the neurotic lord of nightmare. Terribly sexy yet self destructive, though it would fade into a self-loathing hopelessness quickly enough. That she hated. It was his look, his manner; that dry, ironic, honey-coated contemptuousness she found easy to fall prey to...his charms in her eyes.  
  
"He isn't obviously handsome, almost ugly, but something about his passion and intelligence makes him unbelievably sexy." She recalled someone saying in a conversation about him. Well, there was something eye candy-ish about him even if nobody else saw it.  
  
"What do you think the ticket will get me?" She finally broke the silence.  
  
"Time will tell. Now to bed with you." He sat on the edge of his bed and swung his feet up. She took the hint and got ready for bed.   
  
  
  
  
"Wake up." Severus ordered impatiently. He was already eating breakfast and Fayal was still in bed. She whined before sitting up and stretching. yawning widely she got up and went into the bathroom to prepair herself to face the day.  
  
Two hours later she was carrying bags of candied, clothes, herbs, books, and her new wand. Madam Malkins had charged her half price for a dress Fayal asked her to make and was skipping along so happy she was surprised her feet still touched the ground. "Stop that." Her companion hissed under his breath. His command was heeded, though she was still walking with a bounce in her step. He caught her up by the elbow and held her still as he reached into his cloak and pulled his pocket watch from it's folds. He flipped it open and after releasing her tapped it with his wand sharply. A hogwart's carrage appeared and he gestured for her to get in.  
  
So that is where it had gone! She climbed into a seat and began to read...  
  
Ryn and Oliver sat together on the Hogwarts Express, looking out the window. As the trees flashed by the silence became more intense. Finally she turned and looked at him with a small smile. "For a little reminder." She handed him a picture of a griffin flying across a sunset sky with the two of them standing together beneath it. The sun sand low in the image sky and they began to dance together under the starry heavens.   
  
He looked up from the picture and raised an eyebrow. "Who took it?"   
  
"My brother. It was the most bizar thing he has ever done."  
  
He kissed her on the cheek. "Well, it was the best Christmas ever."  
  
"I have to tell you something." She clenched her hands in her lap. "Mom and Dad are marrying me off to someone when I graduate. They owled me that day..."  
  
"Well, I've been betrothed all my life. I guess I should have let you know." He looked up at her with the same guilty expression. "But I couldn't pass up the chance to spend some time with the most amazing girl in the world." He was now staring intently at the window.  
  
"Thanks." She hid her tears by rubbing at her eyes. "I'm tired." He laced his fingers in hers and she leaned against his shoulder.  
  
"Any thing off the trolly dears?" The chubby little service witch asked with a smile. She looked rather like an elderly cherib without wings.  
  
"Two chocolate frogs and hum..." Oliver glanced at Ryn before continuing. "A peanut butter sand box."  
  
"A what?" Ryn asked suspiciously as Oliver handed over the money and took the boxes the elderly lady offered him. She moved on as Oliver scooted over to make space between them and sat down a box about 2cm deep, half a meter wide, and 1 meter long.  
  
He explained himself a he opened the lid. "It's a new candy mostly popular with first years." He popped off the lid and revieled sand. "See you get two shovels and can build sand castles, dig for gummy crabs and chocolate seashells. When you finish playing you scarf it."  
  
She giggled as he handed her a little scoop. A gummy crab scuttled out of the sand as she stuck in her shovel. They coralled the little scuttling candy until the magic wore off and they were forced to eat him. Then they built a little castle and decorated with shells. Then they dismantled it, munching away at lumps of sugary peanut butter sand. Well intertained until they reached Hogsmeade station they spilled out of the box car and into a carrage. Before they knew it they were in the great hall and vacation and winter romances were at an end.   
  
Fayal was sitting at the Ravenclaw table as the students drifted in and began sitting. Ryn waved to her before going to her own table and sitting with her friends. After they were let free to go to their rooms Fayal snagged Oliver. She, Ryn, and he went to the girl's room and they all traded gifts. Ryn was bouncing around maddly when she realized Fayal had gotten her a uniform of the Montrose Magpies.  
  
Oliver made the remark that she would look amazing in it and she dashed into the bathroom to try it on while Oliver opened his gift. "Now Fay, you can't be serious...I can't." He picked up another uniform like the one Ryn had left with.  
  
"Think of it as a gesture of faith. The day after graduation you are to report to the Ireland Quidditch Union. They've got two openings, Keeper and Chaser." She was looking positively smug. "I met Mister Murray at the pub in Diagon Alley and we made friends. He has put you on the top of his guest list. No lines for you."  
  
"But...I'm supposed to marry."  
  
"Yes, and in Ireland. You'll be making Galleons out the arse if you get the job and who would object to that?" She started untieing the ribbons from her gift. "Excellent! I've been needing a new journal. Mine's full." She chirpped happilly as she flipped it open and looked at the neat golden lines. "I love it!"  
  
"Your gift is better." He hugged the robes. "I wont let you down."  
  
"Um, keep it a secret ok?"  
  
"Got it."  
  
"Here I am!" Ryn came out of the bath looking absolutely professionally, yet way hyper. "What do you think?" She spun around, got dizzy and stood clutching a hand full of bed drapes.  
  
They all laughed happilly. Then Fayal explained to Ryn what Oliver and she had talked about while she had changed. Ryn sat down on her bed and just stared at her. Fayal was busy rooting through Ryn's bags looking for her present. She finally found it and started to open it. "NO!" Ryn shrieked lushing furiously. "Night Oliver!"  
  
"OKAY...." He snickered at her before taking his leave.  
  
"What's the big deal?" Fayal was giggling also. Ryn was blushing much more then normal.  
  
"Open it." Fayal took off the paper and raised an eyebrow. "I thought you would appreciate Quidditch a little more if you could think about it in a different light." She was grinning stupidly.  
  
"Quidditch in Bed?!" Giggling turned into howls of laughter. Tears rolled down her face. "You are so funny."  
  
"I thought I would get this reaction from you." She giggled, sprawling on her back. They sat in silence, giggling from time to time.  
  
A knock at the door made them both jump. Fay stashed the book while Ryn opened the door. "Aurora?"  
  
"Hi...Dumbledore said I was suposed to move in here. Hey Fayal, guess what?!" He held out her hand showing off her new ring. "Kazul asked me to marry him."  
  
Congradulations!" She went over and hugged her. "I think she might need the book more then me." Fayal grinned at Ryn.  
  
"Book?"  
  
"NOTHING!" Ryn shook her head.  
  
  
  
It was midnight and Aurora, Ryn, and Fayal were sitting on the floor, feeling rather mischievous as they leafed through spell books, study for NEWTs long forgotten. "Ohohhooo, listen to this, a potion to reveal your future husband. Let's do it!" Aurora grinned evilly. "Mine, we know, but what about you two?"  
  
"Um, my true love?" Fayal looked up quirking an eyebrow.  
  
"Probably but then again, it is magic." Aurora shrugged.   
  
"Wehehee, me first!" Ryn grabbed the book. "Fay, get the potions kit and cauldron."  
  
About twenty minutes later there was a rolling boil going in the cauldron in the fireplace and the girls all stood around. "Umpara significos eros laendokaren. Swiesky childernacht leverrib shimo!" They all read from the book before ladling a scoop of the potion over a lock of hair. When each girl had a plate of potion with her hair they all finished the spell. "Karli perym socarm deos."  
  
Both Aurora and Ryn caught sight of their loves in the plates. They slept quietly, looking cute and innocent. Fayal on the other hand was staring wide-eyed at a not terribly clothed Snape who was paused in the middle of shaving to look back in surprise.   
  
She bolted up, "Crap, hide everything!"  
  
"Why?" They both looked up in confusion.  
  
"Snape saw me, he's coming." Fayal began to clean up and poured her plate back into the pot. The other girls followed suit and they put up the herbs before putting out the fire. Ryn transfigured the potion into hot chocolate. Aurora lit candles as Ryn put the hot chocolate into mugs. Fayal ordered up some cookies from the kitchen and they hopped in bed with their midnight treats. Fayal magicked into her pajamas before getting in bed and put her hair up in a bun a moment before Snape slammed into the door.  
  
They all screamed as he broke the ward and came stomping into the room. "What are you doing!?!"  
  
"Eating a snack?" Ryn looked like she might cry.  
  
"What are you doing in here professor?" Aurora sounded awfully smug.  
  
"Finding out what rule braking you are up to." He grumbled as he looked around. The book still sat on the mantle and he seized it. "And what is this?"  
  
"A book." Fayal stifled a giggle as he glowered at her.  
  
"Farlawa Kimado Rigan Siliawa tyo." He read a page. "Spells of romance divination? What crock." He tossed the book back on the mantle. "I saw you."  
  
"The eyes that fixed on Fayal were angry. "When? You see me all the time. I am in two of your potion classes a day!" She frowned. "And you really need to learn to respect our privacy. We are women after all."  
  
"You give me a headache." He turned around with a swish of robes and went stomping out, slamming the door behind him...a moment later he reopened the door to pull his robes out of it. The three girls howled with laughter. Sobbing they choked down some hot chocolate to calm them selves and went to sleep.  
  
  
  
Oliver woke up feeling rather grumpy. No, he felt down right Filtch-ish. He climbed out of bed and pulled on his uniform over the pajamas he wore, feeling to lazy to take them off. He then stumbled out into the hall and off towards the great hall...Wrong way...Oops. He turned around and made it to breakfast. He lumped on a seat next to Fred and stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth whole. He chewed it and swallowed, washing it down with pumpkin juice.  
  
One of the girls put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok honey?"  
  
He nodded, cramming a piece of bacon into his mouth and forcing it down. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he climbed to his feet. He went to class, bookless, workless, and clueless. He walked into Muggle Studies only to receive a pitying smile. "Honey, you aren't in this class, you are in Divination sweetie." His teacher told him.  
  
"Huh?" He blinked. His voice sounded strange.  
  
"Ryn, maybe you should go back to bed." He looked behind him. No body. Odd...He scratched his head...Long hair? He blinked then went dashing off down the hall to the boys' bathroom. He skidded to a halt in front of the mirror. Ryn's panic sticken face looked back at him. "Ahhhh!"  
  
"Ryn, it's ok, come with us, we will take you back to your room." The Weasley twins offered from the doorway.   
  
"You know, this isn't the most classy place to have a breakdown." George told him matter-of-factly. "I'm sure Oliver will be good as gold by lunch."  
  
"Oliver?" He whimpered.  
  
"He got a nasty knock on the noggin when he woke up." Fred frowned. "Then what are you going on about?"  
  
"I it uh..." he ended in a wail.   
  
"Come on love, let's go on to your room."  
  
He allowed them to take him away. Someone had to know in that room what was going on. They would know how to put things right.  
  
  
  
  
nape came to with the slamming of a door. The only three people with the gall to enter his private living space were Albus, Minerva, and Fayal. Albus would never slam a door and Minerva would knock. Fayal could get exuberant about things and forget courtesy. Perhaps the paper had given her a surprise.  
  
He rolled over and eyed the wall? He sat up and knew instantly this wasn't going to be your typical Tuesday. No. No where near a typical day.  
  
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and hopped onto the cold stone floor after failing to find slippers. He about fell on his nose at the change of the center of gravity. He righted himself and walked stiffly to the mirror. Yes, not a typical Tuesday. For starters he had never woken up with breasts before, or the rest of a woman's body for that matter. Fayal looked back at him in one of her skimpy lace nighties. Her face went very red and he turned away and snatched up some over robes and pulled them on.  
  
What in the bloody hell had they been up to last night? He went stomping out the door before he found this didn't feel pleasant on the breasts and folded his arms to smash them down to keep them from jiggling painfully.  
  
"Tiger Balm." He grumbled in a high voice that didn't do justice to his growing annoyance as he reached his room entrance. He flung open the door and it hit the wall with a loud bang.  
  
His body bolted up and into the wall. Thump. "OW!" The floundering groggy person fell back into the bed. "What the.. my..huh?" He presumed Fayal was just discovering she was now in his body.  
  
"It seems you are in possession of my body as I am of yours." Severus flopped down in a chair with a heavy sigh, robes askew.  
  
"You didn't bother to get dressed?" Fayal stopped examining the hands in her possession to look at the skin he carelessly was showing.  
  
"Perhaps you could cover up a little as well, if it isn't too much trouble."  
  
She looked down. Nude... "Oh, my, well, I suppose." She did a toga out of the sheets and got out of bed unsteadily. "Um...Socks?"  
  
"My feet get cold." He snapped.  
  
"And no other...appendages do?" She tried to ask delicately, but lost it and broke into a grin at the miffed face on her own body.  
  
"No."  
  
"Well, you best get back to my room and get dressed and get to breakfast. You have classes to attend."  
  
"NO." He glowered. "I am not running around to all of your classes."  
  
"Well, I'm going to have to be you today so the least you could do is try and be me." She folded her arms across her chest. She was remarkable, looking and sounding nearly identical to him chiding a student. "I will be reviewing things students have failed to grasp."  
  
"I'll be in your room. I am not going to your classes."  
  
"Fine, be a freak then."  
  
"Oh you're one to talk." He threw his arms up. "A twenty one year old woman in her high school teacher's body."  
  
"Cut the sarcasm. I've got to get dressed, so go away." The professor voice was flat, unprovoked, and absolutely like he was using it.  
  
"Let me get out the clothes, I don't want you rooting through my stuff."  
  
"Gee, how hard. Black or gasp BLACK?"  
  
"Shut up." He glowered.  
  
"I can see why no body gets intimidated when I make that face. It's to damn cute...Well, you can put on the uniform that was sitting on the chair." 


End file.
